Once We are Descendants
by Number Ten
Summary: When Mal of Auradon and Crystal of Storybrooke mix the wrong spells together, both end up accidentally opening a portal and sending the students of Auradon to Storybrooke. With no other choice but to work together, the teens meet their perspective "parents" of the small town. Some fit in easily, but some don't. What happens when a villainous character wants to use this their way?
1. Prologue: Go Back?

Prologue: Go Back?

 _All rights go to ABC for Once Upon a Time and to Disney for Descendants 1 and 2_

"Well I'm ready to go back," Jay says firmly. "Although I do enjoy the fact that in this realm I have no dad."

"I'm with Jay on this one," Ben agrees. He turns to Belle, who's holding Gideon. "I like how gracious you are to me, Belle, just as much as my own mother is, and it's great to have a little brother in this realm, but I have my duties to Auradon as its king. Thank you for giving me hospitality and treating me like your son."

"I understand Ben," Belle says smiling, giving her "second son" a strong hug. "I was once in your situation, my duty to my people or to myself and I ended up falling in love because of it."

Ben smiles widely. "Just like my mother,"

Mal swallows hard. She wants to go back to Auradon with Ben, she loves him after all, but here in Storybrooke… like Auradon, she's getting a second chance. She feels just a normal here as at the school. High school is interesting, but everyone there is either from Camelot or the Enchanted Forest, so she doesn't stand out as much like at Auradon Prep where she's a VK. She's allowed to use magic here, it's not under Fairy Godmother's lock and key, plus her magic is stronger here and she's getting lessons from people who care. But most of all, she has a mother who loves and doesn't have high expectations for her. Her mother is trying to change, unlike the lizard of a mother she has back in the other realm. Plus, she has a sister… they may not always get along and had a very rough start to their relationship, but now Mal trusted Lily with her life. Evie would always be her bestie and sister, but Lily was one too.

She tries to fade into the background, but Crystal grabs her arm, causing her to jump.

"Is everything ready?" Emma asks, holding onto Killian's hand, giving a warm smile to Harry. Her hand caressing her own growing baby bump.

"Should be," Crystal says. She stands over the cauldron she borrowed from her father's shop, right in the middle of Main Street. She lights the fire underneath and begins mixing the ingredients together, the thing begins to bubble more frantically and change colours rapidly, indicating that it was working.

"All is left is a sample of Mal's and my magic," the daughter of the Dark One says.

Crystal goes over with a small box to collect a sample of Mal's powers, after which she'd add some of her own.

Suddenly, Dude grabs a hold of Rumpel's daughter's untied shoelace, causing her to fall to her elbows and for his master to spring into action. Carlos lunges forward, pulling the last ingredient he needed out of his coat pocket.

"Dude, what are you…" Evie begins.

"Carlos what are you doing?!" Jane screeches.

Before anyone can stop him, he dumps something into the cauldron. It begins to bubble frantically, he stands back and grabs Dude as smoke began rising into the air. The residents of Storybrooke and Auradon rush forward in confusion until there is loud rumbling and light erupts from the black pot, blinding everyone. Jay rushes forward, trying to find his best friend, Killian clings to Emma and their unborn child, while Harry steps in front of the couple, Snow and David hold Neal and reach out for Whitney and Simon's hands, Regina tries to find Evie, Belle grabs onto Ben's shoulder to keep him back, and Mal stumbles backward into Ben's arms.

It's very intense and powerful that nobody could see what was happening…

When the light dies down, everyone blinks, trying to comprehend what happened. Crystal gets up, examining her elbows looking onward in shock.

"Carlos what did you do?" Mal snaps angrily.

The son of Cruella says nothing, he just stares forward at a large green portal that just opened in the middle of Storybrooke. Magic swirls around it and he swallows, waiting… he'd kept his end of the bargain, now came the reward.

"You shouldn't have done it, man," Dude says disapprovingly from his arms.

"What the bloody hell did he do?" Killian hisses, keeping his wife behind him and putting his hand on Harry's shoulder to ensure he was okay.

"He opened a portal, but not to Auradon."

"To the Enchanted Forest?" Mulan asks.

A figure begins emerging from the giant circular portal, "Not quite darling…"


	2. Chapter 1: New Worlds

Chapter 1: New Worlds

"Mal, are you coming or not?" Evie asks from in front of her vanity mirror, which was illuminated by bright lightbulbs.

"I think I'll pass tonight thanks," the daughter of Maleficent says, laying on her bed, with her purple hair spread out on her pillow like a fan.

"Come on, **Moonlight Madness** is supposed to be the most romantic dance of the whole semester," the daughter of the Evil Queen, says, putting the final touches on her makeup. "Besides, it's Dizzy's first real dance since coming to Auradon."

"I know, she's only told me like a thousand times. I sit next to her in Chemistry remember?"

"Oh, that's right, sorry, but seriously how can kissing under the moonlight not be romantic for you and Ben…? Wait, did Ben cancel again tonight?"

"Yeah, more royal paperwork," Mal sighs.

"When was the last time you guys actually had a real date?"

"When was the Royal Cotillion?"

Evie shoots her bestie a look.

"Fine, two weeks ago, but it wasn't even a real date, we just ate lunch together in his office. We didn't really get to see each other over the summer anyway." This was true as while Mal stayed on campus the whole time, Ben had to go touring through the different kingdoms to recruit more students for Auradon Prep.

Evie sits on the edge of her friend's bed. "That's something…"

Mal just rolls away from her friend. Even though she and Ben were true love, it did not mean life was going to be happy and cheery, the happily ever after type… Ben had his responsibilities as the King and Mal to her school work and lady of the court… it was hard to manage their lives and find time for each other.

There's an eager knocking at the door. Evie opens it to see an excited Dizzy, all dressed up in a rainbow skirt, a fancy top, and the nicest pair of glasses she can find. Her hair is in her favourite pigtail style and she has her headphones around her neck.

"Evie, you look so pretty," the youngest of the VK group squeals.

"You look so awesome too Diz,"

"Do I look okay? Did I try to pick the best of my glasses? Should I have gone with pigtails or maybe braids? What about an orange skirt instead of rainbow. What about purple shoes, do they match…"

"Dizzy," Evie says, putting her hand on her friend's shoulder. "Take a breath, you look fine, just maybe lose the headphones, you want to be able to hear when boys give you compliments," She takes them off and unintentionally tosses them onto Mal's bed.

"There, now you look like you're ready for a party,"

"Do you really think I'll meet my prince charming tonight?"

"Who knows, anything is possible, but slow down Dizzy this is only your first dance, there will be tonnes more. Tonight should just be all about having fun," Evie says confidently.

"Is Mal coming?"

"Not tonight," is the answer from her bed.

Dizzy pokes her head in to see her other friend. "How come, isn't Ben coming?"

"Not tonight, he's busy again, besides, I don't want cameras in my face the whole night anyways."

"You know Ben fixed that right?" Evie says. "Only for important royal events, now."

"I just don't feel like going anywhere that's all," Mal says. "But have fun at your first dance Dizzy."

"Thanks, Mal, I'll see you on Monday for chemistry."

"Right,"

"Well let's go Diz, I promised Doug that I would meet him at 8 down by the fountain."

"But it's 8:20,"

"I know, but a lady is always fashionably late for her date," the blue-haired princess smirks. She grabs her heart-shaped purse. "Night Mal,"

"Night."

Once alone, Mal looks over at her clock, deep in thought. She wishes time would go faster. She brings out her phone and begins scrolling through until she gets to Ben's number. She knew he'd be in his royal office doing important things, but just to hear his voice may improve her mood a lot more. She presses the call button and waits as it rings.

It rings and rings and rings and then:

 _"_ _Hey this is Ben, sorry I can't take your call right now, but leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."_

Once it beeps, Mal sighs.

"Hey, it's just me, wanting to talk to you, hear your voice and stuff. I just wanted to let you know that I might go for a walk by the lake tonight if you want to join me, but I know that's probably not going to happen so... Anyways call me back if you can. Bye"

Tossing her phone onto her nightstand, she turns the TV on… but there's nothing interesting to watch except the movies that starred their parents and their mortal enemies and the local gossip news. Getting bored really quickly, she turns off the tube, gets up, grabs her leather coat, and goes for a walk along campus. She passes several of the new kids who had come to campus in the new semester:

Paige and Patrick, twins of Peter Pan, Tia, daughter of Tiana, Aziz, son of Aladdin and Jasmine, along with Whitney and Simon, daughter, and son of Snow White and Prince Charming, plus Dizzy, Ally, the daughter of Alice and Talia, daughter of Tinkerbelle. Every year it seemed that more kids of every fairy tale wanted to come to Auradon Preparatory School, whether to escape their parents' kingdoms or find their own adventures. The problem was, there were still very few VKs and the "rotten" troop still stuck out like a sore thumb in the crowd of princes, princesses, sidekicks, and fairies. Dizzy was an obvious choice to bring from the Isle, but it was hard to welcome new students to campus, especially ones that didn't try to kidnap Ben or steal Fairy Godmother's wand. Uma was still at large, but she'd probably found some rock to live under for all Mal cared. As long as she kept her tentacles off Ben…

Several of the new kids eyed her carefully as she walks past the fountain, going in the opposite direction of the **Moonlight Madness** dance.

"Is that Mal? King Ben's true love?" she heard someone ask their friends.

"Yeah, you'd think she'd be going to the dance with him."

"Maybe they're too busy tonight."

"She's too cool for dances like this. Didn't you hear she saved Auradon and the Royal Cotillion?"

The daughter of Maleficent ignores the whispers and rumours going around and proceeds down towards past the lake towards the ocean. She's avoiding her and Ben's Special Spot where they fell in love and the gazebo where they had their big fight before she left for the Isle again. Instead, she walks all the way down towards where there is a rocky beach. Across the ocean, she could barely make out the shape of the Isle. She knows she's pushing the boundaries of campus, knowing students were not allowed to leave with permission from Fairy Godmother or their parents. While the Isle confined her for much of her early life, Auradon felt the same to some degree for her current life. While she was much happier here than back where all the villains roamed, she still wants more.

As she continues staring at the ground, she doesn't notice when someone bumps into her, causing that person to drop their towel and other belongings.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," the girl says.

Mal looks up to see a blue-eyed and raven-haired girl. She almost forgot about Melody, daughter of Ariel and Prince Eric. Melody had recently become the new captain of the Auradon swim team and she was always pushing for new members, which was something Mal tried to avoid, considering the fact that the VK still couldn't swim.

"It's cool," Mal shrugs, helping the AK pick up her stuff.

"Hey, you're Mal right, King Ben's girlfriend?"

"That's me,"

"Aren't you going to the **Moonlight Madness** dance?"

"I didn't feel up to it tonight. What have you been doing?"

"Taking a late-night swim, keeping the strokes strong. You know we could really use a few VKs on our swim team, you interested?"

"Thanks, but no thanks; try Dizzy, daughter of Drizella, she might be interested."

"You mean the petite girl with the pigtails and glasses and amazing fashion sense?" Dizzy had joined Evie in her fashion industry was becoming another well-known designer on campus.

"Yeah, she wants to sign up for everything,"

"Well, I'll keep that in mind, anyways got a run, nice talking to you Mal,"

"Same here Melody."

Once she's alone again, Mal begins the trek towards the water's edge along the rocky beach. Eventually, she comes upon some very large rocks and climbs on top of one of them, making it her perch for the time being. She gazes out at the moonlit ocean. It glows silver and the white orb ripples with the waves of the tide, like a balloon floating through the dark night air. There's nothing but the sounds of water lapping the rocky surface and the occasional seagull cawing.

Mal looks out at the horizon, wondering what was beyond Auradon and the Isle even. Were there other worlds that they hadn't explored yet? Maybe a land that had yet to experience humankind… A place with magic, not unlike her own. She can feel her powers warming up slightly, but she suppresses the feeling again. Then she proceeds to toss rocks into the water. Part of her makes a wish every time she sees a ripple on the surface.

Suddenly, something shiny catches her eye, she hops down from the rocks and to take a closer look. She realizes that it's just a fork, that probably washed ashore from the Royal Cotillion or some other seaside picnic. She examines it for a few moments until she hears bubbling in the water and unfamiliar splashing.

Mal looks around her magic activating in case of trouble. She looks out into the water and not too far away, the surface is bubbling frantically as if something is coming up from the depths of the ocean. It couldn't be Melody, she just left. Another swim team member? Uma?

A human head pops out of the water, causing Mal to jump back in surprise. The human head continues to bob along the surface, it's hard to see in the darkness who it was, but the person did have very long hair that shone in the moonlight.

"Excuse me," the head says, a voice Mal did not recognize. It wasn't a teenager, it was an adult.

Mal takes a step away, unsure of what to think of this stranger.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, but I was wondering if I could have that mini trident."

"The what?" Mal asks.

"The trident in your hands."

"You mean the fork?"

"Yes, sorry, I'm not used to the human lingo."

The woman gets closer to the shore and Mal could see why she was in the water. The bottom half of her body was a tail. She was a mermaid!

Mermaids were hardly ever seen, especially around Auradon, even Melody, whose mother is a mermaid, didn't talk about it that much. This is a real shock for Mal, but also exciting. She nervously steps forward, careful not to get her boots wet, she comes to the edge.

"Y-You're a mermaid?!" Mal asks.

"Last time I checked," she chuckles. She flips her tail upwards to show the curious teenager. Her scales sparkled in the moonlight, appearing to be a turquoise or green colouring as she flipped it around to show the purple-haired teen.

"Do you mind handing me the fork?"

"Uh sure…"

"Could you come a bit closer, it's too shallow for me to come up any further."

Reluctantly, Mal kicks off her boots and puts her bare feet in the cold lake water. She walks a few steps, nearly slipping on the rocky bottom until she's close enough to hand the fork to the mermaid.

"Thanks, this is a real find. One of the best," the mermaid says, smiling. Mal could see a faint reddish tint of the mermaid's hair in the moonlight too.

Her mind is trying to connect the dots… forks, mermaids, red hair, collecting random things, could this be Ariel? Is that why Melody comes out to the ocean, so she can see her mom?

"Do you mind telling me where I am exactly? Sometimes I get so caught up in travelling that I forget where I am."

"Uh, you're in Auradon."

"What is that?" the mermaid, possibly Ariel asks, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

"You mean you've never heard of Auradon before?"

"Not in this realm at least,"

"R-Realm?"

"Oh, I must've gone too far back at that kelp clump. I forgot about the time differences too. I hope Eric won't be too mad at me. Anyways, thanks for your help… uh…"

"Mal, my name is Mal,"

"Mal, that's an interesting name. Mal of Auradon. I'll have to come back and talk to you some more, but I have to go now, thanks a lot, Mal."

Before the VK can even utter one simple questions, the mermaid, who just confirmed to the teen that she's Ariel takes a deep dive, flicking her tail once. Mal watches where the mermaid disappears when suddenly, there's a flickering of soft yellow lights that appear under the water. Confused, but curious, she wants to get closer. Is this magic? Do mermaids even have magic? How could she be allowed to use it? She rushes forward as the lights flicker under the surface for a brief few minutes. Mal's heart is pounding as she almost reaches them, when her foot slips, realizing too late that it was the end of a coastal shelf and into deeper water and she goes under the cold liquid. Pushing herself back up onto the shallow area and trying not to panic, Mal breaks the surface. She searches for the magic, but the lights are gone and so is Ariel. She sloshes back to the shore, now cold and wet, she keeps looking back to where the lights had appeared. Her curiosity had seriously peeked and she wants to know more about Ariel and this magic that she possessed.


	3. Chapter 2: I Want to Know More

Chapter 2: I Want to Know More

Over the next week or so, Mal was spending more and more time away from her friends and keeping to herself.

"Hey Melody," Mal had asked the day after the encounter.

"Yeah?"

"Just curious, how does your mom usually travel around the lands?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"It's… for a report I'm doing…" Mal lied quickly. "I'm asking different kids how their parents like to get around. I mean… Talia's mom usually uses pixie dust, Chad and Ben's parents use a coach, Carlos' mom in a retro car… My mom, if she could, would fly everywhere or teleport."

"Oh… okay, well my mom usually travels by boat, it makes her feel closer to the sea because of the whole mermaid thing."

"So, you've learned how to sail yourself?"

"Yep, I learned how to man a tiller before I could even walk."

"Does your mom still swim?"

"You mean as a mermaid?"

"Both."

"Not really, she can get her tail back if she wants to, but she has to ask my grandpa first. She says she prefers the legs to a tail, that way she's not cheating when we train together. I would still go for the tail, it's so much faster."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, plus you don't have to come up for air as often. I'd kill for a mermaid swim team here at school."

"Sounds like you really want to have a tail."

"Yeah… I mean I've had one before, but it's not a permanent thing. Mom still wants me to interact with people my own age and not just sea creatures."

"When was the last time you saw her as a mermaid…"

"Umm…" Melody said biting her lip. "I think it was almost two years ago… For my grandpa's 195th birthday."

Mal did her best not to act too surprised because it seems that Ariel might be living a double life. It had definitely been Ariel that she talked to the other night and she was most certainly a mermaid.

"Right I forgot mermaids live so long."

"I got to go too, it was quite the party."

"Gives new meaning to 'Under the Sea' dances," Mal smirked.

"Yeah, I guess. Hey, are you sure you don't want to join the swim team?"

"I'm good thanks," Mal said before walking away.

In her mind, she was trying to process the information. So, Melody's mom doesn't become a mermaid too often and since Melody just came to Auradon Prep, there's no way Ariel could have developed a secret life all of sudden. She remembers talking to this redheaded mermaid and she said that she travelled around a lot… plus she'd never heard of Auradon before. If Melody was coming to this school… how could her mother not know where she was? Could the daughter of Prince Eric and Ariel have run away from home? No that didn't make sense because Mal saw both parents at orientation week… It's not hard to miss the red hair.

Mal wanted more information. A few days later, she began searching the library for anything associated with mermaids or possible other worlds. The problem was, there weren't that many… it's as if Auradon wanted to deny the existence of alternate worlds, in fact in Geography class, there were only so many lands that they studied. The daughter of Maleficent ended up sneaking into a restricted section of the library, which wasn't too hard considering Dreamy… was the nickname given to Sleepy Junior. Sleepy's son was the library assistant and was either doing what his father did best or daydreaming behind the counter. To do this, she used her powers to make a stack of books fall from a table and while everyone was busy picking them up, she picked the lock and slipped inside.

The restricted section was very dark and very dusty, indicating that no one had been in here in awhile. Only teachers were allowed in this section and clearly, they didn't pay much attention to it anyways. Using a pencil flashlight, Mal began scanning through the titles, looking for some sort of forbidden content that was related to what she wanted to know… Most of it was junk until she came to something that most definitely peaked her interest.

 _ **Travel Guide to Different Realms and Universes**_

"Bingo," she whispered to herself. She took the large book off the shelf and blew the dust off it. The thing was very old, part of the spine was broken, and many edges of the pages were tattered and worn. She knew she wouldn't be allowed to take this book out by itself, so she slipped it between a stack of other books, including ones about mermaids.

She made another stack of books fall so she could slip out of the restricted section and then went to the front desk. She held her breath and prayed that Dreamy would be distracted enough to not notice what book she was checking out.

She placed the stack on the counter.

"Bit of light reading huh?" Dream asked, jokingly.

"Report," Mal lied.

As he began scanning the books, Mal knew she'd have to get him daydreaming about something quickly.

"Hey Dreamy," she said.

"Yeah?"

"You know I heard a little rumour going around that Ally likes you…" Mal nodded to where Tallia and Ally were sitting at a nearby table. This was a small lie, a white lie, but not totally untrue. She did often notice that Ally liked to talk to Dreamy and she was just as much a daydreamer as he was, coming from Wonderland and everything. Sure, the two could be a couple, if he asked her out on a date first.

"R-Really?"

"You didn't hear it from me," Mal said with a wink. She held her breath as he got to the restricted book, but Dreamy was still gazing at Ally. "But the problem is, Bashful Jr. also has a crush on her, but he is too shy to say anything…" Another lie, but had a lot of merit to it. Bashful Jr., the son of the dwarf Bashful was extremely shy and he always froze up when he tried to talk to any girls. "I'd make my move if I were you…"

Dreamy put the book in the pile, not even noticing its title, making the purple-haired teen feel relieved inside.

"It was kind of lonely at the **Moonlight Madness** Dance. Double D (son of Doc), insisted that we go stag except for Doug, who went with your best friend Evie of course, and we ended up not slow-dancing with anyone."

"Well, that sucks," Mal said, handing over her library card and she quickly put the books in her bag.

"Yeah, it did, well good luck with the report Mal."

"Thanks, and good luck with Ally…"

She hurried along without saying another word.

"Wait, what should I…" Dreamy wanted to ask but saw that Mal was already gone.

While she felt guilty for lying and playing with Dreamy's affections a bit, it served a greater purpose, mainly for her. She knew that moving to Auradon would change her because lying used to be so easy for her; it had been second nature and she never had second thoughts about it. But now… she had more of a conscience and her stomach turned a few times when she did tell a lie. The dishonesty backfired, especially when she'd lied to Auradon's public and Ben about her becoming the "perfect girlfriend," it just wasn't her any more… sort of.

…

Now, she is reading as much as she could about mermaids and travelling between realms.

In one book, she reads about how mermaids could travel anywhere quickly, either by swimming or through whirlpools. The book said that these whirlpools glow a bright yellow and could open up in different places, possibly different worlds. It was all done through sheer willpower of the mermaid herself.

When different worlds came up, Mal brings out the restricted book. According to the restricted volume, there were other universes out there, not unlike their own. They all had different names associated with them and there were some places where magic was only heard of in stories or myths. Each world had its own chapter dedicated to it.

So far Mal is reading about _The Land Without Colour_ , where everything was black, white, and bluish-gray that sounded like something out of a gothic novel when she hears Evie coming into the room. Quickly, she hides the book under her bed and grabs another, less restricted book.

Evie comes in with armfuls of jewelry and fabrics, having no doubt spent time in her new fashion studio with Dizzy. The two designers had decided to start moving Evie's supplies to Dizzy's room because the daughter of Drizella had her own room and therefore would have plenty of space for the clothes, fabrics, sewing supplies, and accessories.

"Hey," Mal says. "How was studio time?"

"I wish it was less stressful. Fairy Godmother wants me to design new cheerleading outfits and then she gave me a bunch of rules saying the skirts couldn't be too short and there had to be a long-sleeved version too…" Evie places all of the fabrics on her bed and has her curiosity peeked by what Mal is reading.

" _Mermaids and Their Secrets_ ," she reads the title. "That's a new subject for you."

"It's a report I have to do, about the biology of other magical creatures," Mal lies. She felt guilty lying to Evie like this; her best friend and "sister," but she knew that Evie would disapprove of what she is really researching. Evie had become the good girl of their VK group, her bestie's conscience and if she knew what Mal was learning, she'd do her best to convince the daughter of Maleficent to find something else to spend time on.

"You could've just picked fairies and done it on Jane, Tallia or Fairy Godmother…"

"Too easy," Mal says. "I like a challenge."

"Have you talked to Melody?"

"Yep, she says that having a tail is so much faster and she wished that Auradon had a mermaid swim team."

"That would be pretty cool."

"Yeah," Mal agrees. "Did you know that mermaids can summon each other by conch shells?"

"What purpose does that serve?" Evie asks.

"Old-fashioned cell phones I guess," Mal says. She gets up and puts the books in her bag, sneaking the restricted one under her bed in when Evie's back is turned. "Anyway, I'm going down to the beach to learn a bit more about the tides and how that affects the way a mermaid moves."

"Okay… you sure you don't want to take Ben down there with you? It would be pretty romantic during the sunset…"

Mal swallows hard. "I guess I could text him, but Tuesdays are usually teacher-king conference days."

"Okay well have fun," Evie says. "I'm going to take a nap before starting on the new designs."

Mal shuts the door behind her to give Evie some privacy. She walks down the halls, towards where she'd gone almost a week before. As she heads down the steps, Dude comes up and begins to trot alongside her.

"Hey Mal, what are you up to?" the dog asks.

"Hi Dude, where's Carlos?"

"Tourney practice, then he's meeting up with Jane, and then he's going to bed with his spotted blankie."

Mal does her best to not laugh after Dude ate the gummy she'd made for Carlos, the prized pup could only speak the truth, no matter how humiliating it was for his master or anyone else.

"So why are you alone and not with Ben tonight?" the dog asks.

"Ben's busy tonight and I'm doing research for a project."

"Is that the book smell, I'm smelling?"

"It is."

"Then why does one of them smell like dust and mildew? It's weird, I mean Carlos usually checks out books on how to impress girls and how to overcome the fear of dogs, but this one is really old…"

Mal swallows and keeps walking.

"Smells like Magic too,"

"Okay Dude, why don't you go to the cafeteria. It was steak and ribs night and you know how much you like the bones."

"Ooh, I love the bones, but was it medium rare night, I can't eat that, makes me gassy all night…"

"Okay Dude," Mal says as she hurries off towards her destination.

"You know you really should stop all this sneaking around Mal… It's not good for you," the dog calls out.

Ignoring him, Mal continues until she's back on the rocky beach where she'd seen Ariel the other night. She hopes lightning will strike twice and the famed mermaid will return when looking for more treasures. If not… she does have some reading that she can do in private.

Once she comes to her big rock, she sits on top of it. The sun is going to set soon, but fortunately, she had a flashlight. She gazes at the view. It really is beautiful; the horizon is light pink at the moment and would soon turn a rich orange colour, contrasting the purple/blue sky around it. And the reflection of the golden sun on the water was truly something worth watching. It was usually very cloudy on the Isle, so she never had that luxury of viewing this peaceful scene. When Ben had shown her a sunset for the first time, Mal thought was really pointless; the sun sets every day and how beautiful could it really be? However, when she stared at the water, Ben's hand holding hers, she realized why people liked to do this. Not only was it very beautiful, but very romantic as well. Ben had kissed her, their third official kiss at the time. She felt her heart flutter and she flushed a shade of pink that matched the sky, making her smile like never before. Part of her is tempted to call Ben and ask him to join her out here along the shore, but if he found out what she is reading, he'd be pretty mad at her… she didn't want another fight.

Against her better judgement, she tries his phone. As she expects, she hears.

 _"Hey this is Ben, sorry I can't take your call right now, but leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can."_

Hanging up, Mal opens the book to where she was and continues to read.

She becomes so absorbed in the reading that she doesn't watch the sun go down. When she finishes the chapter on _The Land Without Colour_ , she opens to the next chapter.

 _The Land Without Magic._


	4. Chapter 3: Life as Usual

Chapter 3: Life As Usual

Storybrooke, Maine (Post-season 6 and into Season 7 where Regina came back with Emma and Hook instead of staying with Henry)

 _ **Description of Crystal for readers who have no clue who she is... Thank you to RosettaQueen20 for the suggestion.**_

 _ **Just so readers know, this is merely a spin-off featuring my character which means the details are going to be slightly different. If you want the "canon" story of Crystal find Once Upon Another Time on my page.**_

 _ **Crystal Lillian Miller is the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin and Lillian Miller. She possesses light and dark abilities, striking a rare balance between her father's darkness and her mother's love.**_

 _ **Much like the fairy tale, Lillian Miller was forced to spin straw into gold but had help from a sinister imp known as the Dark One. However, instead of him wanting her child, the two fell in love with one another. They began a secret affair, despite Lillian being married to the king of a kingdom.**_

 _ **When her mother, Lillian Miller became pregnant with his child, the Dark One feared he would lose his powers by passing it through the blood. He planned to consume the infant's heart to regain that power. He also feared the prophecy of a boy being his undoing would come true. He attempted to convince his secret lover to give up the baby because the infant would have magic that could endanger all of them. Lillian decided to find a place where magic didn't exist and procured a bean for the trip, wanting to take Rumpel with her. When she overheard his true plan, she screamed at him and threw herself and the unborn baby into the portal.**_

 _ **Lillian and her unborn baby ended up in Wonderland for a long time, approximately 10-20 years (the exact time is not known). Since time was frozen, Lillian remained pregnant and remained a handmaiden for the White Queen during that time. For reasons unclear, Lillian eventually ended up in The Land Without Magic and finally gave birth to her child, having hope that her lover's darkness had not followed them. She named the child Crystal, with the hope of purity and goodness would be inside her daughter.**_

 _ **Crystal, however, was tormented by the darkness of her father, manifesting itself as a wicked voice in her head, for most of her life and often obeyed its demands. She was rebellious, hot-tempered and ended up involved in gang culture, drugs, alcohol, arson, felony and other crimes. Lillian knew that her daughter had not escaped the darkness, but she knew that as long they remained in this land, her dark magic would never manifest.**_

 _ **However, this changed after Emma Swan, the Saviour broke the first curse and her father regained his own magic. For reasons unknown, Crystal's magic began to manifest outside of Storybrooke.**_

 _ **When she was sixteen, Lillian had finally had enough and confronted her daughter about her behaviour. A fight broke out between mother and daughter and things became dangerous when Crystal's powers appeared and she grabbed hold of her mother in anger. The darkness was attempting to coerce her into killing her mother, but something inside of her still was good, likely the light and love Lillian had always provided her daughter with. Crystal couldn't do it and rebelled, causing a seismic explosion when both light and dark magic collided. It destroyed the family's home and Lillian was mortally wounded by some dark weapon that her daughter had unknowingly created. Clinging to her mother, Crystal begged for her to stay, but Lillian passed away in her daughter's arms after telling her little girl that she loved her.**_

 _ **This caused a dramatic shift in Crystal's life. She completely changed her life to honour her mother's memory and always wore a golden heart-shaped locket to remind her of Lillian Miller's love and sacrifice. She went to college, got a job, and even fell in love. The one problem was that she tried to suppress her powers and she'd fight the voice in her head. This caused some destruction and created conflict in the girl's life.**_

 _ **Crystal started dating Mason Phelps, who seemed to understand her the best and made her feel accepted. After fighting and making up, Mason told her that he knew who she really was and that he was from that world too. Confused, Crystal found her mother's diary and learned about who she really was. Confused, the girl was pushed over the edge when Mason abruptly broke up with her and she nearly harmed the children she worked with. The girl ran until she knowingly broke through the barrier of Storybrooke and arrived where she truly belonged.**_

 _ **The girl bonded with the heroes of the town, discovering new aspects of her powers, but was wary of finding her father. When she finally met him, she confronted him and brought all his memories to the surface. Her anger towards him fueled when she attacked with vengeance. She made a big spectacle and seemingly gave into her darkness, but once Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin confessed that he did love her mother, she stopped. It's all she ever needed to hear and to make peace with herself and her father.**_

 _ **Both individuals reluctantly tried to form a relationship, while she experienced some alienation from the heroes of Storybrooke due to her powers. That is until Regina reached out to her and made a connection that the girl could accept.**_

 _ **At this point in the story, Crystal has been in and out of Storybrooke, dealing with work and other problems in New York before officially moving to town. After The Final Battle, she is now living comfortably with her family and friends in town but still does not know where Mason has gone. She's avoiding the subject because of the pain and we find out in this chapter how she is going to be messing around with travelling between realms.**_

"You know she's going to hate it right?" Crystal says on the phone as she heads towards _Granny's_ diner.

Rumpelstiltskin's daughter walks through the quiet streets of the tiny Maine town on her way to get coffee and doughnuts before taking care of her baby brother for the day. The new mother, Belle had agreed that she couldn't keep Gideon with her all the time and allowed some breaks where her step-daughter would take over. After all, nothing had happened to Storybrooke in almost a year and Gideon's half-sister was a qualified Early Childhood Educator and caregiver, so there was no reason for panic. She's on the phone with Mary Margret who wants to throw her newly pregnant daughter a baby shower. It didn't make sense to the young adult to start planning so early. Emma was barely two months pregnant and since baby showers usually occurred towards the end of the pregnancy, Crystal was befuddled as anyone. Plus, Emma was not one to particularly like parties or being the centre of attention.

"All the more reason to do it," the teacher says.

"Why don't we just give her a gift card and call it a day? You know she won't like it," the younger girl groans as she pushes the door open into the diner. A few people are already inside, but the restaurant was just opening for the day. A sleepy waitress sits behind the counter, waiting for her customer to get off the phone and place an order. Despite how nice this waitress is, Crystal missed Ruby. She missed Ruby's spunk and her snappy one-liners as well as exchanging the usual gossip between friends. Instead, the beloved werewolf waitress was out having adventures in Oz with her true love Dorothy, and while she was happy for the two of them, the daughter of the Dark One missed her friend and confidante.

"Because I missed her first pregnancy and I'm not going to miss out on celebrating the birth of a new grandchild. Besides we've never actually thrown anyone in Storybrooke a baby shower before."

Which was very true. Ella never got one because everyone was still cursed at the time, it didn't happen for Aurora because she was in the Enchanted Forest and a flying monkey for awhile and Snow herself never got one because of Zelena's threats. They didn't throw one for Wicked Witch either because she was still very evil and had cruelly taken advantage of Robin Hood to get pregnant, which gave no one a reason to celebrate. They could've thrown one for Belle, but since the Evil Queen half of Regina had sped up her pregnancy, they never got the chance. So in turn, it made sense to give the Saviour one.

"Okay, I understand," Crystals says. "Look, I've got to go, I'll talk to you later."

"Okay, bye."

Once she's off the phone, the young adult turns to the waitress to order. "Two teas, two coffees, two Bear-Claws, two Danishes, and one fritter please,"

"Coming right up," the woman says. As the waitress goes about getting her order together, Granny comes out from the back kitchen.

"Oh Crystal, just the person I want to see,"

"That's a first," she jokes as the elderly restaurant owner comes over to her. The woman smelled of kitchen grease and a hint of cinnamon, probably from making apple pies.

"You're going to your father's shop, today aren't you?"

"Would you expect his daughter and son to be anywhere else?"

"I was wondering if you could ask him if there's a way to communicate with some of the other realms…"

"How come?"

The woman adjusts her glasses, stares down at the floor for a few moments before looking up again.

"It's just that… Ruby's birthday is coming up really soon and… I'd like to wish it to her either in person or through some other way…"

Crystal tilts her head to the side and gives a sympathetic smile. She knew that Granny missed her granddaughter, after all, this tough old woman had raised Ruby since she was a little pup, and they had a complicated, but strong bond that would be hard to break. One could assume that the distance was taking its toll on the older werewolf.

"Sure, I can look around the place if you'd like,"

"That would be so wonderful."

"Just keep in mind, that place is full of junk, so it might take awhile,"

"Understood. Thank you, Crystal."

"No problem."

"Order up," the waitress calls. "That'll be 16.50." Crystal pulls out her wallet to pay.

"Uh uh," Granny says. "This one's on me."

"Thank you, Granny,"

"Just this once," the restaurant owner warns. "You and your families seriously run up a tab here."

"Understood," she nods, grabbing her things to head out.

"Hey Floyd, how are those onion rings coming?" the old woman says, getting right back to work, as Crystal exits the diner.

…

"Who ordered the Bear Claws?" Rumpel's daughter asks, coming into the sheriff's station.

She finds Emma at one of the desks, sorting through what it probably just boring paperwork. The blonde sheriff looks up happily to see her friend toss the bag of pastries to her. She catches them and begins to wolf them down.

"And tea for Mommy dearest," Crystal says, placing the warm beverage down on the desk. "Where's Captain Hubby?"

"I do wish you'd stop calling me that, Crisi," Killian teases as he turns the corner into the room.

"I should have spit in your coffee when I had the chance," the sassy girl snaps back, handing him his morning beverage.

"Much appreciated that you did not," the captain of the _Jolly Roger_ smirks. He goes towards the bag that Emma has with the other Bear Claw inside when Crystal slaps his hand away.

"Bloody hell what was that for?!"

"Who said the Claws were for you? You have a pregnant wife now, you have to do your best to satisfy her cravings."

"She does have a point," Emma adds, finishing off the first one and going for the second.

"I got you a Danish to change it up," Crystal says, handing him one of the other bags in her arms.

"Many thanks, Love,"

"How's the morning sickness?"

"Off and on, but when it does happen, it's pretty bad."

"Aye, not a pretty sight," Killian agrees.

"First true test of your marriage," Crystal teases. "Can one partner tolerate the other's vomiting."

Killian frowns and puts his half-eaten Danish back in his bag. "That will kill your appetite rather quickly."

"Coming from the man who's never gotten seasick, anyways, I have a brother to pick up and a Dad to annoy so I bid you three adieu," the girl smirks, taking a bow before walking towards the exit.

"Adieu, to you as well," Emma calls back.

…

Crystal walks up to the infamous clock tower of Storybrooke, knowing that underneath it was the library where her step-mother worked. The place was going to be abuzz with activity very soon considering Snow was bringing her class over for a field trip. Belle is inside busily trying to straighten up in preparation for this visit, all while trying to keep her son happy.

Gideon sits in his baby bucket, watching his mother run around while sucking on a rattle that looks like a rose.

"Who ordered the herbal tea with a cream-filled Danish?"

When Gideon hears his sister's voice, he turns his head in recognition. Seven months old and very smart for his age, the young boy that was once fated to kill Emma was now the picture of innocence. He gurgles when he sees his sister.

"Hi Crystal," Belle says, hurrying past her with a cart full of books. "How are you?"

"I would be better if I could speak to you at a slower pace."

"Can't talk," the librarian says. "Gideon had croup last week, so I didn't get the chance to get everything organized for the field trip."

"Well, why don't you drink your tea and let me handle it,"

"Don't be ridiculous, you have no idea how this system works anyways, and I don't have time to teach you..." she pants, hurriedly putting books on shelves.

"Is it really this hard when you can do this?" Crystal asks. She allows her hands to glow and very slowly, the books spring into the air on their own and float to their appropriate places. Another stack of volumes checks themselves back into the system and join the others in the shelf sorting. A broom begins to sweep the floor, a rag dusts the shelves and the elevator locks itself and disappears into the ground to avoid any curious children trying to activate it.

Belle leans against the main counter of the library, looking utterly exhausted. She gives a stern frown but says nothing. Gideon, however, is delighted and claps his hands in amusement at seeing the normally inanimate objects moving around by themselves.

"Housekeeping spells, wouldn't want to live without them. Regina says it cuts her workload at home in half."

"You know I don't like casual magic, especially in front of Gideon, but this is the one time I'll let you use it," Belle says, reaching over to take a sip of her tea, while Crystal drinks her coffee.

"Why are you so worried about him seeing magic?"

"Because I want him to grow up as normal as possible… He's already been exposed to enough magic for one lifetime thanks to his grandmother…"

"Right, I'm sorry, I keep forgetting. But you know that's going to be hard considering his father is the Dark One and he likely also has magic, right?"

"I know, I know," Belle sighs in annoyance. "But I just want him to have as normal of a childhood as possible before we worry about that."

"You're right, I'm sorry Belle,"

"It's all right. So where are you going to take your brother today?"

"I was planning for a walk in the park and then stop by dad's shop. Granny asked me to look for something there."

"Really?"

"Yeah, she wants to find a way to communicate with Ruby in Oz, with her birthday coming up."

"I see, I can understand how hard that could be," the librarian says, taking a bite of her Danish. "Being separated from the one you raised… Which reminds me, how are Regina and Emma holding up after Henry left?"

"Okay I guess, but it's hard not to worry and wonder where he is considering he could literally be anywhere. I miss him too, but unlike me, he's been confined to the tiny town for most of his life, I can't blame him for wanting to find his own adventure."

Belle bites her lip. She knows she wants to bring up the fact that Crystal still hasn't gone out in search of her true love, Mason. He was her entire world and he knew all about The Enchanted Forest and who she was, but it seemed that her step-daughter was avoiding it. It had been awhile since they'd broken up, but clearly, the pain was still there. Both women knew that either Crystal had to find him or move on, but neither seemed like an option at the moment.

Just then, the two hear kids' voices coming up the street.

"Oh god, they're here," Belle gasps. "Quick and shut the magic down,"

Crystal nods and snaps her fingers, the objects become inanimate again. "And that's our cue to skidoo eh Giddy?"

The tot coos from his carrier.

"The stroller is in the corner, I love you, little buddy," the mother says, kissing her son's cheeks and forehead before handing the bucket over to her step-daughter.

Crystal puts the carrier in the stroller and waves to Belle before heading down to the park.

…

The infamous bells of Gold's shop ring as both his children enter it.

"We're closed for lunch," a voice calls from the back.

"That's fine, I'll just steal all the cash from the register and go to Vegas," Crystal calls.

Gold appears from behind the curtain of his shop. He rolls his eyes when he sees his sarcastic daughter, but smiles nonetheless. He goes over to greet them. He scoops his son out of the bucket to hold him.

Rumpel's life had improved significantly since he'd finally made peace with his darkness and defeated his mother. He now had the loving wife and happy family he'd always wanted. He and Crystal had long since buried the hatchet she'd held against him, how he wanted to kill her and basically abandoned her mother to be lost in the other realms. The two were working on forming a strong relationship of trust and love, something that had been all too scarce in both their lives.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I need to find something here and I figured Giddy could see his Daddy."

"You know I don't like it when you call him that," Rumpel says sternly, cringing at the nickname.

"Well, as long as you keep calling me Crisi, I'll keep calling him Giddy," she says. "You're choice."

"Well, the shop is free for you to roam, might I ask what you are looking for?"

"Are you going to try and stop me?"

"That will depend on what you're looking for,"

"Then no, you can go play with your son. I'm doing this as a favour to someone and she'd prefer to keep it private."

"Will it jeopardize the town's safety?"

"Absolutely not."

"Then you may carry on," The Dark One says before taking his son to the back of the shop.

Once she's alone, Crystal turns to examine all the objects in the shop.

"Okay… inter-realm cell phone here I come,"

 _A/N: Please Follow and Review. Shout out to RosettaQueen20 for the comment and Panther4Life for their comment as well._


	5. Chapter 4: Be There for You

Chapter 4: Be There for You

 _Wonderland is known as the land of madness, where nothing is as it seems, and everything is as topsy-turvy as a rabbit running past you is wearing a waistcoat and a pocket watch, talking playing cards painting white roses red, and where tea time is all the time_ …

"No wonder Ally was desperate to come to Auradon, this is where things make sense," Mal mutters, reading the latest chapter in her restricted book.

As of recently, the daughter of Maleficent had spent every moment of her free time reading the book, consuming the information within its pages. Her eyes had been opened so very wide and she couldn't believe what she had learned about the worlds outside of Auradon and the Isle. Like anyone who realized that there are multiple worlds besides their own, she got a headache just thinking about it. She made a list of the worlds that were interesting, especially a place called _Oz_ , which had a city completely made of emeralds. That would be quite the find and a valuable place to visit.

However, the world that interested her the most was _The Land Without Magic_ , a place where everything was completely upside down and weird. In this world, magic does not exist at all, except in a handful of places and even then, no one there ever believed in it. The world was infamous for having a variety of versions of Auradon's and the Isle's stories; they were known as "fairy tales," meaning imaginary or made up. There were movies about their parents, said to have been created by a man named Walter Disney… what a strange name. Mal noticed a picture of a mouse with red shorts, yellow shoes, and white gloves and wonders; was he Walter Disney? If that was the case, then there really was magic in this land and people didn't know about it. But there was no mention of the students of Auradon as children. Jafar, Cruella, Belle and Adam, Alice, Tinkerbelle, and her mother… everyone's stories apparently ended at "happily ever after," no offspring of any kind.

"It's like we never existed," Mal mutters to herself.

She suddenly hears footsteps coming down the hall, she quickly shoves the book under her bed and pretends to be interested in her phone.

"Hey," Evie says, poking her head in.

"Hey."

"Do you mind if I let Doug and the other 7 sons come in and bring the fashion stuff out of here?"

"Out of here?" Mal asks in confusion.

Ever since Evie had become the campus fashion designer, their shared room had also become her fashion studio, not that Mal really minded, only if nobody touched her stuff and since the purple-haired teen didn't bring a lot of stuff from Isle over, it didn't really matter.

"Yeah, Dizzy and I had a little meeting and we agreed that we should move the studio to her room. Since Ben gave her a room to herself as a special treat so I figured we could use the extra room, plus you're probably sick of me hogging all the space."

"To be honest, I couldn't care less," Mal says.

She grabs the books from under her bed, shoves them into her bag and gets up to leave.

"Where are you going?" Evie asks.

The daughter of the Evil Queen had noticed her friend's more aloof behaviour recently and it worried her. Mal had become distant and even angry when she had forced herself to be the "perfect girlfriend" for the Royal Cotillion and then she had taken off for the Isle after her fight with Ben. No one wanted a repeat of that again.

"I'm going for a walk down by the seashore," Mal says casually.

"You seem to be doing that a lot lately."

"Helps me clear my head," she answers nonchalantly. "Plus, with this paper, I'm doing, I need to do a lot of reading and I like to go where it's quiet."

Evie frowns, not buying the excuse. She knows something is off with her best friend and she wants to figure out what.

"Are you okay?" Evie asks, tilting her head to the side.

"Couldn't be better," the daughter of Maleficent says as convincingly as she can. "I'll see you later."

Within a flash of purple hair, Mal vanishes through the door of their room. Evie stands there with her hands on her hips. She knows her friend is pulling away again and it must be because Ben is too busy for her.

She hears a knock at the door. Doug sticks his head in.

"Did you get everyone?" Evie asks.

"All except Dreamy, he's pulling a double shift at the library. Apparently, someone took a book from the restricted section, so he has to work double time in case someone else tries to take another book from there."

"Okay, well, we can get started. You guys know where Dizzy's room is?"

"Yep…"

The blue-haired beauty bites her lip. "Actually, can you guys start without me, I have to do something really quick and then I promise I'll be right back to help."

Doug frowns. "Is everything okay?"

"Fine, I just need to check something." She kisses Doug on the cheek and then leaves the room as the other dwarves come in.

"What's up E?" Double D, asks.

"Not much, I'll be back to help in a minute," she says before leaving.

"Typical," Gordon snorts, once she's gone. Gordon was the son of Grumpy, he was cynical and irritable like his father, only with the volume turned up a couple notches.

"What do you mean typical?" Doug asks.

"What do you think I mean? You're whipped Dude seriously. She so much as bats her baby brown eyes at you and you drop like an anchor at sea. She gets us to help out so she doesn't have to lift a finger, man she's just like her…"

Doug practically collars Gordon, despite being scrawnier and weaker that this dwarf's son. He is now angry and wasn't about to let his cousin get away with this.

"Don't say it…" he hisses angrily. "Evie is a nice and gentle person, she cares about everyone around her. She's nothing like her mother and so help me that if I hear you say that again… I'm going to teach you a lesson."

Gordon wants to snort derisively at the threat, but he'd never seen Doug so angry before. He had to admit, he was a little afraid of the son of Dopey. He finally manages to free himself from the geek's hands.

"Yeah right, like you could hit anyone," Gordon says, taking out a toothpick and chewing on it.

"Don't test a whipped dwarf," Evie's boyfriend warns. He would do anything to protect her honour. She was nothing like her mother; she had changed so much since coming to Auradon and Doug likes to think Evie's become the best person she can be.

"Most of the time love makes people soft, but in Doug's case, it makes him tougher," Double D observes.

"Let's just get to work," Doug says.

…

"No, you know that won't work…" Ben says, over the telephone. "Because serving anything apple-flavoured to Whitney and Simon is not acceptable. It's like giving Melody sushi, it just doesn't work like that."

There's a knock at his door and knowing that it might be something important, King Ben decides to end his call. "We'll figure something else out Jane I promise, just let Ruby, Anexlin, and Artie take care of the desserts okay? I've got to go." He then hangs up the phone.

"It's open," he calls.

Evie peeks her head into the room, watching for a moment as Ben looks down at the stacks and stacks of papers on his desk. She now knew that Mal wasn't exaggerating when she said that Ben always had paperwork to do. As royalty herself, Evie knew that running a kingdom was not easy in the slightest, but she could see that it is taking a toll not only on Ben but Mal and their relationship.

"Evie, hey," Ben says smiling. "What can I do for you?"

"Do you have a minute to talk?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess, but I do have to meet with Lonnie about the Swords and Shields team's upcoming meet, but I have a few minutes to spare."

Evie bites her lip. "I'm worried about Mal…"

Ben immediately drops everything that he's doing and gives her his full attention.

"What's wrong with Mal? Is she okay? Is she hurt? She didn't run off, again did she?"

"No, she's still here, she's just becoming distant again… I think it might be because she doesn't see you anymore."

"What are you talking about? I see her all the time," he says dismissively.

"When was the last time you guys had a real date?" Evie inquires.

Ben bites his lip hard and pauses, trying to put all his royal duties aside to actually think about it, but Evie already has her answer.

"I just don't want Mal to think you're breaking up or drifting apart again. I know you two really care for each other; you're true love after all, but it feels like you're always too busy for her."

"Well, she understands, I've got so much to do as King and…"

"And I think that's the reason why she's becoming distant again. She won't talk to me, Carlos, or Jay anymore. As if she expects to be shoved to the side…Can I tell you a secret?"

"Uh sure," Ben says nervously.

"Despite what you might think, Mal didn't get a lot of attention growing up. Like most of us, our parents aren't exactly great at being…well… parents, I mean my mom spoiled me and told me to be vain and rude to people. As for Mal, all her mother seemed to care about was ruling the Isle or getting the magic wand or ruling Auradon. Other than that, Maleficent paid no attention to her. So… I just don't want her to feel like she's being ignored again, and we all know what happens when she gets upset…"

"She goes back to the start," Ben nods, understanding what Evie is saying.

"Right."

"Where is Mal now?"

"She's down by the ocean shore, reading books, which she's been doing a lot lately."

"She sounds more like my mom than herself," Ben says. He stands up and pages to his secretary. "Deborah, cancel the rest of my appointments today,"

"Yes, your highness."

Evie smiles, feeling hopeful that Mal and Ben can patch things up again and she'll get her best friend back.

Ben flattens his hair. "How do I look?"

Evie smiles and readjusts the collar of his jacket. "Like her prince charming," she says.

"Thank you, Evie, you're a great friend," the king says hugging her and exiting the office.

"Just looking out for everyone," she says, walking towards the door as well.

…

 _The Enchanted Forest was once thought to have been destroyed by a dark curse that took away many people to a strange and desolate land. Only a small section seemed to have survived, but time was frozen for approximately 28 years…_

"That's one intense curse," Mal mutters to herself. She sits on the rock that has now become her usual reading spot for the past little while. She reads in the fading sunlight but also has one of her old purple bracelets laying in the shallow parts of the water, glistening in the light. She's hoping to meet Ariel again… or rather a version of Ariel. She can't believe that there might be other versions of herself out there. It's mind-boggling. The wind blows softly, causing waves to lap at the shore.

It's then that she hears what sounds like footsteps coming up the beach. Immediately, Mal shoves her book into her bag. She thinks it might be Melody, coming for swim practice, so the daughter of Maleficent pretends to be reading a book about mermaids. She turns towards the sound and her heart nearly drops when she sees who is approaching her.

It's Ben, his hair combed to the side and he wears his Auradon blazer, but no crown. He's just like the prince she remembered before he was crowned… the guy she fell in love with.

As he gets closer, Mal can feel her cheeks flushing a bright red. She puts the book in her bag and gets off the rock.

Ben does his best to smile at her, and she reluctantly offers a smile back.

"Mal," he says quietly.

"Hi."

The two go into an awkward silence.

"How's work?" she asks, making a forced conversation.

"Good, good," Ben says, gazing into Mal's eyes, becoming lost in them again. It feels like the first time they had really connected and started falling in love with each other. He steps a bit closer, but she steps back.

"Have you come to watch Melody's swim team?" she asks.

"No," he says. "I'm here to see you."

She blinks in disbelief. It had been awhile since he'd wanted to see her without asking to make an appointment.

"R-Really?"

Ben reaches out to grab Mal's hand. She lets him take it awkwardly. She gazes into his hazel eyes, her heart begins to race and her face flushes a bright pink, matching the sky. She can't help but smile at his face, smooth and happy, as per usual.

"Mal… I'm sorry I've been ignoring you. Evie helped me realize that I can't always put the kingdom before my heart. You need my attention just as much as I need yours. I miss you Mal and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to realize that."

The daughter of Maleficent is taken aback for a moment, she surprised that he's apologizing to her. She will admit that she did miss being with him, but he was king, and he had his responsibilities… she understood that. Their worlds seemed to rush in opposite directions, hardly having time to meet. They were different but somehow they fit together, like strange puzzle pieces. She knew that she loved him a lot, wanting to be with him, but she still wished they could just have time to themselves. No responsibilities, no kingdom, no nothing, just the two of them and they could be like real teenagers, hang out and do more dating things. Maybe even explore the world together. She wants this, but she knows it won't happen.

She becomes lost in his eyes and pulls him in for a kiss. She loves the taste of his lips on hers, how soft they were and how he always smelled like honey and a little bit of tea thrown in there too. They kiss as the sun fades below the horizon.

Both of their minds flash back to that romantic date on the very same beach, where Mal saw the sunset for the first time and they kissed for the third time. Nothing else mattered at that moment, just the two of them in their tiny little world… it felt perfect.

As the sun disappears, the two break apart and just hold each other for awhile.

"I miss this," Mal whispers quietly.

"Me too," Ben answers. "I promise I'll try to be there with you more often."

Mal smiles.

Suddenly, there's the sound of splashing coming from the water. The couple turns towards the sound. Bubbles are forming on the graying water. Then a head breaks the surface of the water and seems to look at the couple.

"Oh, young love reminds me of me and Eric…" it says.

 _A/N: Ariel's back. Please follow and review._


	6. Chapter 5: Secrets to Learn

Chapter 5: Secrets to Learn

Ben steps back in what seems to be shocked, trying to take Mal with him, but the VK is unafraid of the visitor. Mal gets closer to the edge of the water.

"Hi Ariel," Mal says, cheerfully.

"Hi Mal of Auradon," the redheaded mermaid says, floating in the shallowness of the lake.

"Just Mal is okay," the teen responds.

"Okay _Mal is okay_ , how have you been?"

"Pretty good, did you make it home in time to see Eric,"

"Oh in plenty of time, whirlpools really cut time in half,"

"Can they really?"

"Uh, Mal…" Ben speaks up. Both girls turn from their conversation to the slightly frightened king on the shore.

"Oh Ben, sorry this is Ariel."

"Is he your boyfriend?" Ariel giggles. "He's really cute, good choice."

The ladies giggle to one another.

"He's also the King of Auradon."

"Oooh, royalty is even better."

The ladies giggle again

"Queen Ariel?" Ben asks

"I guess so," the mermaid shrugs.

"What are you doing in Auradon?" he asks, still in shock.

"Exploring I guess, I just found this amazing treasure," Ariel holds up Mal's old bracelet. Inwardly, Mal is happy that the fish took the bait, she could now talk to the mermaid about the other worlds that she's been to. "I'm going to add it to my collection."

"But… you should be in your kingdom by the sea with King Eric… If you're here to check on Melody..."

"Melody, who's Melody?" the mermaid asks.

"Your daughter."

"I don't have a daughter. I mean Eric and I have thought about having kids, but we just haven't got around to it. Anyways, Eric and I don't have a kingdom, we live in a small fishing cabin in the Enchanted Forest."

Ben looks very bewildered, but Mal seems very calm, the redhead just confirming her long thought theory about where this mermaid came from.

"What… What is the Enchanted Forest?!"

Mal turns and whispers to Ariel. "I think we need to tell him about going across the realms thing."

"You know about that?"

"I've been doing research about it."

"Smart girl, you're just like my friend Belle in Storybrooke, her nose is always in a book."

"S-Storybrooke? I didn't re…hear about a land like that."

"It's in the Land Without Magic."

"It is?"

"Yes, it's a very nice place…"

"Belle… you mean my mother?" Ben asks, coming closer to the shoreline.

Ariel cocks her head to the side curiously. "The Belle I know does have a son, but his name is Gideon. He's a very cute kid…"

"Wait. wait, wait, the Belle you know?! Mal what is going on? How do you know her?"

"Well this is clearly a couple problem, I won't bother you anymore…" Ariel turns to swim away.

"No!" Mal says. "Please stay. If I explain this to Ben, he might not believe me unless I have a back-up to confirm it."

"Believe you about what?" the king demands.

Ariel pulls herself onto the rocky shores of the beach and then snaps on a different, sparkling bracelet. Almost by magic, Ariel's long, shiny green tail becomes a pair of legs. She attempts to steady herself on the new environment and then perches herself on the rock Mal had been sitting on. Ben looks very bewildered, almost to point of panicking. Mal takes his hand and has him sit down on the shore.

"Ben… look at me," she says, trying to meet his confused eyes.

"Where do you want to start?" Ariel asks.

…

For almost an hour, Mal spends her time explaining to Ben the concept of alternate worlds and that there were different versions of their parents and the lands that they knew as home. The sun sinks below the horizon and the moon begins to rise, casting a waning shaped reflection on the water. Tiny waves lapped against the teens' toes as they sit next to each other on the rocky shores. Ariel backs up these claims by explaining how mermaids can travel through these different realms using whirlpools. The king of Auradon sits still for almost all of the explanations, his head throbbing and his mouth agape in shock and slight awe. Never had he thought that there would be another version of his parents or that there was another world besides Auradon?

"So… let me get this straight. So right now, in Auradon, there is a version of you ruling your seaside kingdom with King Eric and allowing your daughter to run the school's swim team. And at the same time, you live with your Prince Eric in a fishing cabin in a land known as the Enchanted Forest?"

Ariel nods. "Pretty much."

Mal agrees and gently puts her hand on Ben's shoulder. Despite how sympathetic she should feel for him being so mixed up about everything, he was cute when he was confused. Mal offers him a bottle of water to clear his head. He drinks the whole thing in one gulp.

"So…there's another version of my mother in another land?" Ben asks.

"There sure is," Ariel says, rummaging through Mal's book bag, looking for anything worth collecting. Mal reaches over to take it from the curious mermaid. "She lives in this town called Storybrooke with her husband Rumpelstiltskin and their son Gideon."

"But my father's name is Adam…"

"I guess in our world, Belle fell in love with someone different," Ariel concludes without much hesitation.

"How is this possible?" he asks, his hand running through his hair.

"It is hard to grasp, trust me I know," Mal says comfortingly.

"Is that why you've been so distant Mal? Because of Ariel?"

"Sort of, when I realized that she wasn't the Ariel we knew, I wanted to learn more, so I've doing research and waiting for Ariel to come back and tell me more," Mal feels she needs to keep the fact that she swiped a restricted book to herself.

"Have you really?" the mermaid asks. "Oh Mal, I'm so sorry, I would've come back sooner if I'd known."

"It's okay," the daughter of Maleficent says calmly. "I've learned a lot on my own without your help."

"How have you learned all this Mal?" Ben inquires.

"The library," Mal answers but doesn't say where she got the information from.

"We have books about this?" he gasps.

The purple-haired teen merely nods her head, trying to conceal any suspicious behaviour that would expose her partial lie. There were books about alternate worlds in the library, but in the restricted section where she was forbidden to go.

"Well then why isn't this a lesson… if fact why isn't a full course, this is such amazing information?! I need to talk to my parents about this… and Fairy Godmother, oh how much there is to learn! Why has no one ever thought about this before?"

"I think that's why," Mal says, grabbing Ben's hand, trying to calm him down. "If people knew about this, it would throw everyone's world into confusion and panic. I mean look at the way you reacted… this is too big for some people Ben."

"I agree," Ariel pipes up. "It can be a lot to take in, plus there are so many worlds out there, you can't keep track of them all."

"I think it's best that we keep it between us," Mal says. "For the time being at least."

"You're right," Ben sighs, rubbing his eyes, trying to gather his thoughts. "I think it's best that we keep this between ourselves. Are you okay with that Miss Ariel?"

"I'm perfectly fine with that," she says, combing a bit of her long red hair out of her face.

"And if you mind not coming around from now on?" he asks.

Mal wants to protest immediately, she wanted to learn more about Ariel's adventures, learn about the new worlds outside of her own… but if she did that, Ben would know what she had been up to, this would lead to another fight and so on. She didn't want to ruin what was just fixed. If Ben learned that she wanted to leave Auradon and explore… even better with him; he'd lecture her that he can't leave his kingdom and tell her that she belongs at the school… it was becoming tiresome and boring the way their worlds constantly conflicted with one another, plus with magic being confiscated, she wouldn't ever get the chance. She sighs internally, wanting so much more, but decides not to light the fuse she seems to be sitting on.

Ariel looks a little disappointed by this message, but nods. "I can manage that. I have to get back to Eric anyways. I need to talk to him about having kids… I like the name Melody… maybe we should have a daughter of our own."

Mal and Ben manage smiles and stand up to watch as Ariel stands upon the rock Mal had been using as a perch before. She leaps into the air and does a graceful dive into the water. They watch as her legs turn back into a tail in mid-air. There's a mighty splash, soaking the couple; Mal shrieks in delight and Ben laughs as well.

"Sorry," Ariel calls out, after resurfacing. "Keep swimming you two!"

"Bye and thank you," Ben calls.

"Bye," Mal says with a heavy heart in her chest.

The couple waves as Ariel completely submerges and the yellow lights appear again below the surface, meaning she is moving into the next realm.

Once they fade, Ben turns to Mal. "I'd call this one interesting date,"

The daughter of Maleficent giggles and lays her head on his shoulder.

"Just next time, tell me when you make a big discovery like this, I'll want to share the credit," he jokes, kissing her cheek.

Mal gathers her things and she and Ben hold hands, walking back towards Auradon Prep. Despite how sad she felt inside about losing the opportunity to explore new worlds, Mal is happy to be with Ben again… her true love. She still needs him, despite how different their worlds could be. They walk up in the moonlight, hands tightly intertwined.

However, unbeknownst to them, their quiet date had not been alone.

"Do you think they saw us?" Dude whispers from the bushes.

Carlos, Jay, Dude, and Evie poke their heads out of the trees and bushes just behind the beach.

"I feel bad that we were spying on Mal," Carlos says quietly.

Evie nods her head to agree. She did feel bad for spying on Mal and Ben, but she wanted to ensure that the two reconnected. They did, just not the way any of the VKs intended.

"Do you think anything that they were talking about was even true?" Jay asks skeptically.

"Well, Ariel was real enough," Evie says.

"And the light show under the sea is hard to fake too," Dude agrees.

"So… I could have another Mom?" Carlos asks in shock.

"We all might have other parents," Evie says.

"That's some heavy stuff bro," Jay says, rubbing the back of his neck.

The three VKs and the dog start heading back up towards the school, trying to process the information given to them when they eavesdropped.

However, unbeknownst to the eavesdroppers, they were being eavesdropped on as well. Further along the shore, a figure cast in shadows sneaks out from their hiding place. They slip into the cold ocean water and puts a shell around their neck. The shelf begins to glow yellow and the feet of this eavesdropper transforms into eight long legs with suction cups on the ends of each.

The spy throws their blue braids out of their face as they go deeper and deeper into the water. What they had learned was going to be very useful, especially if all of Auradon was going to know her name.

 _A/N: Guess who's back?! Please follow and review._


	7. Chapter 6: Plots for Portals

Chapter 6: Plots for Portals

"Harry, are you there?" Uma says into her shell phone.

The daughter of Ursula sits on the beach, stretching her now human legs. As much as she loved having tentacles, human feet are a relief to have as well. She was so glad her human father and cephalopod mother had gifted her with both. She lets the cool water lap at her bare feet as she sits on the rocks covering the beach. She talks into a tiny, glowing shell, the accessory is very close in style to the one that belonged to her mother and allowed her to have tentacles. She had given her entire crew similar shells, so they could stay in contact if they were forced to separate. Now that she was on the outside of the Isle barrier, Uma is still able to talk to her crew.

Not much had changed since she'd left, her crew attempted to keep their territory, but other, meeker Villain Kids are trying to rise up, now that the "top dogs" are gone. Part of her wanted to go back and rule the Isle, but Uma liked the freedom the ocean brought her and although she had yet to take over Auradon, she was content where she was.

"Aye, Captain," a voice from inside the shell says, flickering with each word.

"Have I got a story to tell you," she smirks, brushing a few of her braids out of her face. She tells the son of Captain Hook everything that she'd learned from her nemesis Mal and another version of Ariel.

"So, yer sayin' that I might have another dad out there?" Harry says, trying to process the thought.

"And I might have another Mom," Uma says. She smiles and inside her villainous heart softens just a bit. The mother she had now was hardly bearable. She had a mother who barely paid attention to her only daughter unless the sea witch wanted her to work the night shift at the fish and chips restaurant. It was aggravating and downright unfair. At least Mal's mother paid attention to her, wanting her to steal Fairy Godmother's magic wand and take over Auradon. Uma's mind flashes back to her talk with Ben on the pirate ship, how he'd offered to let her come to Auradon Prep, but that was most likely to save his own skin at the time. She remembered telling him how she's always had to make her own way in the world and she'd go to the school on her own.

"That's right brilliant, it is,"

"Exactly and we all know that Mal does not play by the rules. I think she might try experimenting with finding these other worlds."

"What are ye thinkin'?" Harry asks, smirking at the other end.

"I'm going to do a little research of my own," Uma smiles. "If travelling like that mermaid is possible, I might be able to find a way to you and _The Jolly Roger_ over since T _he Lost Revenge_ wouldn't last five minutes in the water out here. We can shake things up in this prissy and perfect place. I'll keep you posted. Do you think you can swipe your dad's ship?"

"Aye, I think I can, it will just take some stealthy work on our part."

"Just have the ship ready when I say so."

"Aye, aye captain,"

…

Meanwhile, in the town of Storybrooke, Crystal is searching through many of the books in the library.

The search of her father's shop did not help her very much. She found a spyglass that likely belonged to Killian, a helmet that belonged to Eric the Red, a jar of dragon scales, most likely from either Maleficent or Lily, a broom that most likely belonged to Zelena at some point, a star-shaped talisman that looked like Regina had worn it at one point, a glass eye, some of Robin Hood's old arrows, Geppetto's parents in the form of marionettes and her half-brother, Baelfire's cloak. Crystal had the unusual ability to see visions/memories connected the various objects in her father's shop through touch alone. Most were unpleasant images and memories as her father often obtained many of these objects through either force, violence, or death. She often liked to tease her father, calling him a hoarder, but still, there was nothing in all the junk in the shop that could help Granny either visit or communicate with Ruby and Dorothy. Crystal knew she had a deadline, so with no other choice, like many heroes, she went to the library for help.

Gideon sits in his older sister's lap, sucking on one of the many toys that had been handed down from Neal. He babbles loudly as Crystal searches through another dusty, old book, looking for information about travelling between realms.

"Why doesn't Granny just buy a bean from Anton and call it a day?" she mutters to herself, feeling like she wasn't getting anywhere.

Belle comes over with another stack of books, having decided to help her step-daughter in her attempts to help Granny. "You know those beans are too valuable to be wasted willy-nilly."

"Yeah, I know," she sighs, "But it means more work for me."

Gideon starts fussing again and Belle immediately goes over to scoop her son up. He makes more noises that sound like words, which has convinced his mother that he's going to start talking soon, but again Crystal tells the beauty that most kids don't start talking until they're almost two years old.

Shutting another book in frustration, Crystal sighs, running her hands over her eyes. "How can you stand reading books like this for hours on end?"

"Well when the chance of Storybrooke getting destroyed, it really speeds up the process," Belle says. "Besides, most books I read are ones to enjoy."

"Which is why you should never read _Twilight_ or _Fifty Shades_ if you value your sanity," Crystal adds.

"I'm trying to find good children's books to read to Gideon at night. I've taken several by that Doctor man,"

"You mean Dr. Seuss?"

"Strange poet to say the least, why on earth would a fox want to wear socks? And what exactly is a Grinch?"

"Jim Carrey in heavy green makeup," Crystal mutters to herself.

Belle puts Gideon on the floor for a moment, next to a large stack of books as she runs to the bathroom. The baby, like any curious and destructive child, pushes the stack of books over with a series of loud thuds, startling his half-sister.

"Gideon," his half-sister groans as the tiny boy claps his hands in delight at the sounds the books toppling over made. She kneels down to start picking them up when a title catches her eye. It's covered in a thick layer of dust and grime. She puts her brother in his baby seat so he doesn't cause any more trouble and sits down with the book that had been at the very bottom of the pile.

Brushing off the wrinkled leather cover, faded gold letters declare; _Everything You Need to Know About Spells, Enchantments, Hexes, Curses, Potions, and Portals._

With her interest peaked, Crystal begins looking through the old torn pages coming to the sections on portals. To her surprise, it shows an individual with magic how to make small portals with some interesting ingredients, all of which she can obtain fairly easily.

"Good job little brother," she says, tickling him under the cheek. "For once, being messy was useful."

…

Uma slips into the school library, having used her magic to unlock the door. She'd stolen a tacky looking hoodie from a nearby kid's locker and put it over her aqua blue dreadlocks. Even though it was the middle of the night, she didn't want to take her chances.

The daughter of Ursula immediately goes to the _Restricted_ section of the library, knowing that it would be the best place to find the information she is seeking. She knew Mal had a book from this section that told her about other worlds, but Uma is after something else entirely. She uses her magic to open the locked section and slip inside.

Using the yellow glow from her mother's shell, the VK begins searching through the many volumes, reading each title carefully. She knew that if the stuck-up royals of Auradon wanted to keep information about breaking the barrier around the Isle or making use of illegal magic, this would be the place.

Finally, she finds something that was going to help her.

The title read:

 _Everything You Need to Know About Spells, Enchantments, Hexes, Curses, Potions and Portals._

"Perfect," the daughter of the sea witch smiles. She grabs the book and slips into the shadows.

 _A/ N: Thank you to all my followers. Please follow and review_


	8. Chapter 7: Long Live Evil

Chapter 7: Long Live Evil

"It's hard to really think about other realms in general," Ben says. "Let alone ones where we have different parents."

He and Mal sit in his office a few days later, having a quiet, uninterrupted lunch. While it was still where he worked, the daughter of Maleficent cannot complain that she has Ben's undivided attention. Mal finally showed her boyfriend the book that she'd been reading but had yet to tell him about swiping the book from the restricted section. She really didn't want to think about how that fight would go. She knows that she broke the rules, but it was a part of who she was. She was never going to be a goody-two-shoes princess and while Ben accepted her Isle side, she knew he hated it when she broke the rules. She didn't want to fight about it, the pain was too much to handle again.

Mal points to another land that had peaked her interest.

"What is Oz?" he asks.

"It's another mythical land," she answers.

"It's certainly a weird name,"

"Well apparently there are roads made of yellow brick, talking trees and animals, witches, monkeys who can fly, poppies that can put people to sleep, and a city made of emeralds," she points to an illustration of said city in the book.

"It must be very beautiful to look at," Ben smiles. "But the witches' thing is a little unsettling."

"Apparently there are witches of the North, South, East, and West," Mal says.

"And it's run by a man known as The Wizard. I'd like to ask him about how he runs his city so peacefully."

Mal rolls her eyes at her boyfriend talking about diplomacy. She knows he wants to run Auradon as best he can, but he's doing an okay job so far.

"It's better than places like the Underworld," she nods, turning to the next chapter. "It's where all lost souls with unfinished business go after they die."

"Sounds exceptionally scary," the king mutters.

"A lot worse than the Isle," Mal agrees.

The couple continue looking through at the different worlds, Ben making a list of all of them as they go. Mal keeps daydreaming about exploring the other realms that she was reading about. She wanted so badly to explore outside of the school and the Isle, see the world… or worlds, that is. The one that she keeps coming back to is The Land Without Magic, and more specifically the town that Ariel mentioned, Storybrooke. It sounds like a lot of fairy tale characters live there. She wonders if her alternate mother lived there. Would she be any better than the poor excuse for the one she had now? Her mind continues to wander until Ben brings her back to reality.

"This is truly amazing what you've discovered Mal," he says. She smiles at him and brushes some purple hair from her face. "If people could understand this better, I'd want you to teach the class."

"It would be better if I could visit these places to teach it better," she says quietly.

"I know," he nods. "I'd want to visit them too, but our place is here at Auradon."

Mal forces herself to smile. The bell rings in the school, which means she had to go to class. She gathers her things, including the book, and shoves them into her bag.

"I'll see you later," she says, kissing his cheek.

"I love you," he says.

"I love you too."

As she walks away from his office, she can't help but feel a little sad. Ben's words about their place being here at Auradon echoing in her mind. While she was half-Isle and half- Auradon now, she doesn't want to stay here forever. The whole reason she took the chance to come to school was to be free, but now she is feeling more confined to the school because of Ben being King and her basically being his queen.

As she walks through, she spots a large group of students standing outside Fairy Godmother's office. Several royal guards were going in and out and trying to keep the curious students out. Jane, Dizzy, Doug, and Evie are waiting outside with them.

"Hey," Mal says. "What's going on?"

"Someone broke into Fairy Godmother's vault last night," Doug explains. "They stole a bunch of stuff."

"They didn't get the wand, but they did get a few other things," Jane says, looking rather worried.

"Like what?" Mal asks.

"Restricted things, like cauldrons and old potion ingredients like gryphon claws, eyes of newts, hazel stones, and a lot of other ingredients that we aren't allowed to use," the daughter of Fairy Godmother says. The frantic girl is trying to take down a list of all the things that were stolen.

"But why would they steal old relic stuff?" Dizzy asks.

"Hey guys, we just heard," Carlos says as he and Jay join the group, both were sweaty and likely came from Tourney practice. "How bad is it?"

The son of Cruella goes to his girlfriend's side, trying to calm her down as she paces back and forth, still writing down the list of missing items.

"They've stolen a bunch of ingredients, they're likely going to make a potion or something," Evie deduces.

Fairy Godmother finally comes out of her office, looking just as frazzled and as worried as her daughter. She huffs when she sees all the curious students watching and whispering to one another, some of them are even taking pictures with their phones.

"Don't you have classes to go to?" the headmistress asks. "Go on... **_NOW_**!"

As the group is about to turn and leave they hear.

"Not you Isle children. You are staying _here_."

Mal, Evie, Jay, Dizzy, and Carlos freeze in their tracks and all swallow. The harsh tone of the woman's words are not pleasant and sound a lot like the other kids' disapproving tones when they'd first arrived here. Jane and Doug also stop, but with some distance from their friends, equally worried about what was just said.

They all turn to see the angry eyes of this fairy. They all look at each other nervously and then at the woman.

"Is something wrong Headmistress?" Carlos asks politely.

"Very wrong," she says rather angrily. "There's something I think you should all see." The angry fairy then points to her office, signalling for the VKs to go in. Jane and Doug want to come too, but Fairy Godmother stops them. "Jane, you and Doug go to class."

"But…" Jane begins, looking at Carlos.

" _ **Now**_ young lady," her mother orders.

With a look of sadness, both Jane and Doug turn away from their sweethearts and friends, walking in the opposite direction.

The group of VKs walk reluctantly into the Headmistress's office. They find the place trashed with papers ripped and scattered everywhere, the portrait of Cinderella that hung on one of her walls is heavily vandalized, anything breakable is smashed, her desk and chairs are turned over and books thrown from their shelves.

"Now, normally I would never assume that reformed students like you would do such a thing…"

"You think we did this?!" Mal asks in horror. She can feel her powers activating slightly with the anger starting to brew inside of her. She thought the teachers would treat them better, after all, they hadn't caused any kind of problems in months. They were good kids now, but apparently, the bias never goes away, which made Mal and her friends very angry.

"Usually I wouldn't assume anything of the sort, that is until I found this…" the angry fairy says.

The group turns from the mess of the office to where Fairy Godmother's vault was. Where Evie's mirror and Mal's spell book now stayed, the vault is almost completely empty. Whoever the thief was, they hit it hard with robbing it. But it's not what's inside the vault that makes the headmistress mad. She slowly pushes the door of the vault shut to reveal something spray painted on the door. All the VKs gasp, recognizing the words… words that were all too familiar in all of their lives.

 ** _Long Live Evil_**

 ** _Isle of the Lost_**

 _A/N: Please Follow and Review._


	9. Chapter 8: Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Chapter 8: Guilty Until Proven Innocent

All the VKs are speechless at the spray-painted tag. It was the infamous motto on the Isle, one that they used to live by and would spray-paint it all over the crummy buildings of their former home. The key word was "used to," most of them had given up using this expression of their evil when they had a better place to live and were accepted by their peers.

"Would any of you care to explain?" Fairy Godmother says angrily.

"We didn't do it," Mal says firmly. Everyone around her murmurs in agreement.

"So, I am supposed to assume that another student did this? Or perhaps a ghost with painting skills?"

"Why would we do something like this?" the daughter of Maleficent protests.

"Yeah," Evie agrees. "We like Auradon, we wouldn't do anything to jeopardize what we have here."

"Perhaps to get back your precious objects. Maleficent's spell book and your mother's magic mirror."

Mal is completely floored by what this fairy is implying. Her eyes flash green for a moment before she realizes that she's speaking to the headmistress of the school, someone who could very well expel her. "We willingly gave those things to you," the purple-haired teen says. "We don't need them anymore."

"Then who could possibly want those objects because they are amongst the objects stolen from the vault?"

"You have no proof that we did anything," Carlos says, keeping his hand on Mal's shoulder to prevent her from becoming too angry.

"Besides, don't you have security cameras?" Jay points out. "Maybe check them first before accusing us."

"Watch your tone young man," the headmistress warns.

"Did you check the security cameras?" Evie asks, raising her eyebrows.

Fairy Godmother opens her mouth to fire back when she realizes that neither she nor the guards had checked the security footage from the night before. Her face goes bright red and she purses her lips together. She wasn't used to children gaining the upper hand in the situation, nor did she like being made a fool of. All the VKs look at each other, satisfied that they'd proven their innocence.

"No… we have not," She grinds her teeth together. "Move along to your classes now."

Mal crosses her arms in defiance, she wants an apology from the headmistress for accusing them of destroying her office, but the woman is obviously too filled with pride to do so. Jay subtly puts his arm around Mal's shoulders and guides her to the door. The daughter of Maleficent gives one last glowing eye stare at the fairy before all 5 VKs exit the office.

Once in the clear, all of them let out a collective sigh of relief, all except Mal who is still extremely angry. She ducks under Jay's arm and begins walking down the hall in a frenzy of explosive emotions. She couldn't believe what had just happened. She was Ben's girlfriend for Walt's sake, the king of Auradon, why would she want to vandalize the school. She knew deep down that she did miss her spellbook, it did make her life easier and more fun, but not enough to trash Fairy Godmother's office to steal it back. Auradon Prep was a safe place where they were well-fed, being given an education, had good friends and they were overall very happy; why would any of them want to vandalize the school like that? What motive did they have? It was all so infuriating.

"More than a year at this school and we're still the villains," the purple-haired teen hisses in anger.

"At least now we're off the hook," Jay says.

Mal laughs spitefully. "For now, they're going to find a way to pin this on us, I just know it."

"But that's not fair," Dizzy says. The youngest of the group is extremely scared; she hated confrontation and she didn't want to get in trouble. Out of all the VKs to come off the Isle, the daughter of Drizella is the least likely perpetrator of this crime. She was likely the nicest girl on the Isle, maybe even in Auradon. Evie was angry too, but for how the headmistress had made her other best friend sad and scared. The daughter of the Evil Queen puts a comforting arm around her fellow stylist.

"They don't care about fair Diz," Mal grumbles. "They only care about where we came from. Why does it seem every time something bad happens, we're automatically to blame?"

"Because every time something bad has happened, it has involved us in some way," Carlos says. He picks Dude up into his arms.

Mal shoots her friend a glare.

"At least we didn't get in trouble," Dizzy points out.

"That's a silver lining of sorts," Evie agrees. "When they do look at the security cameras and prove it's not us, it'll all be over."

The daughter of Maleficent wishes she could believe her best friend's words, she really did, but something was wrong. It was clear whoever had done this was from the Isle or at least knew about the Isle, possibly having been there before. The only other kids who knew the motto were Lonnie and Ben, neither would ever do something like this, lest Ben be viewed as a horrible king and Lonnie losing her spot as team captain on the Swords and Shields team. Her mind thinks about Uma for a second, the wicked daughter of Ursula is still unaccounted for… was it possible that it was Shrimpy? The slimy octopus that had kidnapped Ben and put a love spell on him just to spite her. But wouldn't have somebody spotted her, her hair and stench would be hard not to miss… unless it was at night.

As the group goes their separate ways to class, Mal's mind continues to piece together the clues, no longer thinking about school work. Both she and Dizzy go to chemistry and they sit in the back, ignoring the confused gazes from their classmates as to why they are late.

In the middle of an experiment, Chad Charming and Jane, who are both working next to Mal and Dizzy, Jane leans over to talk to them quietly.

"Are you guys okay?" she asks genuinely.

Mal's first reaction is to lash out at the daughter of her accuser, but she remembers that Jane was too nice for her own good. She genuinely cares about people, plus she was dating Carlos, the last thing she wanted was to make enemies with her.

"We're fine, it was a… misunderstanding," she says through gritted teeth.

As Dizzy pours a test tube of acid into a beaker, Mal hears Chad talking to Jane.

"It doesn't surprise me that your mother thought they vandalized her office," he says. "Once a villain, always a villain."

Mal's eyes flash green again. Unbeknownst to her, the beaker that she and Dizzy are working on begins to bubble.

"Uh… Mal…" Dizzy says nervously, but her lab partner doesn't hear it.

"It's so typical of them though," Chad continues to anyone who would listen. Jane looks down, trying to ignore him. She knows he was just jealous of the fact that the VKs were so much more popular than he was. She knew Carlos was the sweetest guy and would never do anything to hurt her or her mother. "They can't help but cause trouble for everyone, thinking they're so cool. Honestly, Ben should keep them on one side of the school."

The beaker continues to boil as well as Mal's anger, her eyes becoming greener with every word. Dizzy tries to tap Mal's shoulder to get her attention.

"Ben should've kept Audrey…"

At that moment, the beaker explodes, spraying the liquid on everyone and everything. Once it makes contact with the other chemicals on the table, a thick blue and black smoke spews into the air, rapidly spreading everywhere. Soon the whole classroom is engulfed in the strange smoke.

"EVERYBODY OUT!" the teacher coughs. The room erupts into chaos as students try to find the door.

What only satisfies Mal is Chad screaming, "My hair! My Hair!" on his way out the door.

…

Mal walks down the hall after having been chewed out by both the chemistry teacher and Fairy Godmother. The lab would have to be cleaned out now and she would be the one to do. She also had to replace anything that was damaged. The chemistry teacher said she was lucky that Dizzy had accidentally mixed the wrong chemicals, making the mixture that exploded relatively harmless.

Frustrated about how her day was going, she goes to the girl's bathroom to clean the gray and blue residue and grime from her face and hair. She wasn't sorry for what happened. She knew she'd lost control, but Chad's words had just infuriated her further till the point that she exploded.

She finds both Jane and Dizzy and a few other girls from the classroom trying to clean themselves up in front of the mirrors and sinks. They all look at Mal, she shrinks into herself a little bit.

"I'd rather go clean up in my own room," one of the other girls snorts after spotting Mal. She and her friends exit the bathroom with a flick of their dirty hair.

Mal looks at the two who stayed.

"I'm sorry guys," she says, meaning it with all her heart.

"It's okay," Dizzy says slowly. The daughter of Drizella is holding up her pair of glasses, they'd been cracked and scratched by the glass beaker that had exploded.

"Oh Dizzy I'm so sorry about your glasses," Mal says, coming over to help her.

"It's okay, I have tonnes more in my dorm," she says giving a bright smile. "It's not the first time they've been broken or scratched."

Good old Dizzy, no matter how bad the situation may be, she always manages to smile. Mal turns to Jane.

"Jane, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay Mal," the daughter of Fairy Godmother says, trying to comb the frizz and knots out of her hair. "I heard what my mother accused you guys of. It was totally unfair, and she had no proof of it and what Chad said… I didn't believe any of it. It was a recipe for disaster. I don't blame you for getting angry"

"You've got that right," Mal sighs. She begins washing the grime from her face and wondering whether she can wash her hair out in the sink or she should take a shower. There was a bad feeling growing in the pit of her stomach, she knew that no one would want to be around her now. They'll all think that she's the one who trashed Fairy Godmother's office now out of anger. She knew that she had lost control of her powers and it nearly hurt people, but it was an accident. What happened last night was no accident. It was intentional.

…

It wasn't long before the chemistry explosion was being whispered all over the school. Mal found her hoodie and tries to keep her face hidden for the rest of the day. She didn't want to have to deal with any of her gossiping classmates right now. No doubt that they thought she'd vandalized the office and that she was reverting to her old ways again. The daughter of Maleficent was becoming evil again. It just made her angrier and more annoyed at everyone and this is indirectly allowing the rumour to come true. At this point, she just wants the day to be over, so she can go to bed and forget her problems.

She fiddles with the lock on her locker when Evie, Carlos, and Jay all approach her. She only gives them a glance, struggling to unlock it.

"That was pretty cool what you did," Jay says, smirking widely. "I never thought anyone could make an explosion like that and get class cancelled."

"Knock it off Jay," Evie scolds him. "It wasn't cool at all."

"No, it wasn't," Mal agreed. "Because now I'm stuck cleaning the science lab and replacing anything that I broke, without magic or with help from anyone."

"At least no one was hurt," Carlos adds.

At that moment, Mal finally gets her locker open, only for a dark blue hoodie with the crown on the back of it to fall out onto the floor in front of them. Rolled up in this hoodie makes the four friends gasp. Evie's mirror and Mal's spellbook.

 _A/N: Uh oh! Please Review and Follow._


	10. Chapter 9: Framed for Nothing

Chapter 9: Framed for Nothing

None of the VKs speak all of them just stare in utter horror at the objects that have fallen out of Mal's locker. The objects that were supposed to have been stolen from Fairy Godmother's vault, which formerly belonged to two of the four friends in the group.

Carlos looks up at Mal in shock and then down at the items again. Dude comes up and sniffs the objects to investigate further.

"Definitely belonged to you guys," the pup confirmed. He sits at his master's feet while everyone looks back at Mal.

"Mal…" Evie begins. "You didn't."

"Why would I Evie? I have no reason to. I don't want the spell book anymore."

"Shhh!" Jay hisses. "Don't let anyone hear you. It'll just make it worse."

"Then why were they in your locker Mal?" Evie whispers.

"I don't know. And this hoodie isn't even mine," the daughter of Maleficent says, kicking the dark blue hoodie with the image of a crown on the back. None of the friends want to pick up the objects for fear that it would frame them.

"It smells weird," Dude says. "It's almost like…"

But Carlos interrupts his canine companion before he can finish. "Then how did it get in your locker?"

"I don't know Carlos!" Mal snarls, her eyes becoming green again. "I didn't take any of this!"

Evie puts her hand on her friend's shoulder. "We believe you Mal, but if you didn't do it, who did?"

"Guys, I think it was…" Dude begins.

Suddenly, a voice comes over the loudspeaker. The group realizes that it's Fairy Godmother's.

"Attention students of Auradon Prep. As you are all aware, there was a break-in in my office and vault last night in which many of my things were vandalized and several items that were stolen. These items were being kept in my vault until the museum renovations have been completed and they could be safely returned. The head guards on the case are launching a full-scale investigation of the school so you are advised to remain clear of the hallways by my office. The security tapes have been reviewed and it is impossible to identify the culprit from the footage. However, what can be determined is that the thief was wearing a sweatshirt with a crown on the back of it…"

The four VKs look down in horror of the hoodie that still lay on the floor. It matched the description perfectly.

"...And they took many magical items including spellbooks, cauldrons, hazel stones, potion ingredients, and a magic mirror. If any of you students find these items, please return them to my office immediately and if you have any information about who might have done these terrible things, please talk to the investigating guards. Thank you, that is all."

The group of friends are paralyzed, panicking about the evidence has just appeared at their feet. It all appeared to frame Mal for the crime, but her friends trusted her and knew she wouldn't do something like this.

Without thinking much further, Mal picks up the spell book and mirror and wraps them in the hoodie before shoving them back into her locker.

"What are you doing?!" Evie gasps in a panic.

"No sure," Mal mutters under her breath in agony. Her head hurt in the most painful way, not only was all the VKs being accused of a crime they did not commit but now there was evidence to make them look even guiltier. Her heart is pounding in her chest and her stomach churns in anxiety as well as anger. Everything was just getting worse and worse for them as if someone was doing it on purpose, trying to get them all in trouble, or worse expelled.

"Mal we have to take those things to Fairy Godmother," Evie insists.

"And do you think she will listen when we say we just 'found' them in my locker? That doesn't seem suspicious at all."

"But hiding them in your locker isn't less so?" Evie says.

"Hey, guys…" Dude says at their feet.

"Mal this is only going to get you in more trouble," Carlos says.

"ME?!" she gasps in horror. "I see, so it was me who did this!"

"You know that's not what he meant," Evie says, becoming frustrated with Mal's temper and impatience. Sure, she felt just as upset about this entire situation, but her best friend's anger is not going to solve anything.

"That's what it sounded like," she snaps back. She slams her locker shut, tired of all these accusations. She uses some of her magic to put a protective spell on the door so none of her friends tried to break in and turn the items in. "Those… things are staying in my locker until I can find who the real culprit is and make them confess to it."

"Mal that's not your job," Jay states.

"It is if someone's framing me for it," Mal hisses angrily. She bites her lip. She knows she shouldn't be getting mad at her friends, but she can't help it any longer. They are all accepting of the fact that they are being accused of a crime that they did not commit and not standing up for their place of origin. They were Isle kids, they should be proud of their heritage and not be afraid to fight for what was right. "You know what? Leave me alone, until you guys understand what I'm feeling right now and figure out what I'm fighting for, come and find me. I have a chemistry lab to clean out anyway."

With a flash of her purple hair, Mal hustles down the hallway in a huff of anger. Her eyes still glow, not just with rage, but the determination to find the real culprit and put a stop to their plans. She was not going to let all this fall apart for her or anyone else she cared about.

The three remaining friends stand, saddened by Mal pushing them away again, letting her anger get the better of her and generally making things worse. They all looked at each other for a long time before sighing and heading off in the opposite direction, hurt and confused. The only being that remained at the scene was the furry, four-legged companion of Carlos, who sat there and for the first time since he'd been given a voice being unable to speak. He's watching the friendship fall apart in front of him. His tail drops to the floor and he paws once or twice at the ground before going after his master. He had to say something, he knew that Mal hadn't done anything.


	11. Chapter 10: Success for All

Chapter 10: Success for All

Evie tries to spend some time with Dizzy in their new studio, aka Dizzy's room, working on the new cheerleading outfits, but her mind keeps going to Mal, how angry she was at everyone and how hurt the three other friends were by all this. Of course, it wasn't fair that Fairy Godmother would accuse them of damaging her office and vault, but there was a strong implication that it was one of them with the Isle slogan spray painted on the wall and the vandalism of the Cinderella portrait… who wouldn't assume such a thing? But obviously Mal had taken it the hardest and she is lashing out at the people who loved her the most. It happened before and it would likely happen again, Evie just didn't want a repeat of them taking Ben to Isle, almost getting him killed and battling with Uma and her crew on her pirate ship.

"You okay Evie?" Dizzy asks, looking through books with several fabric samples that they might use for other outfits.

The blue-haired teen looks at her young counterpart from the sewing machine she is using.

"Yes, I'm fine, why do you ask?"

"Because you missed the hemline," Dizzy points out.

Evie gasps as she realized that she's just ruined the edges of a perfectly good cheerleading skirt due to her distraction. She groans and does her best to untangle the mess she's made.

"Is it because of Mal?" Dizzy asks.

"You can read people like a book huh?" Evie smiles.

"I'm more observant than you think I am, I'm not like my mom who is so self-involved that she doesn't think of other people and their feelings."

"You're so much better than your mom," her friend smiles. "We all are…"

Dizzy gives a big smile. "Why is Mal so upset?"

"She just feels like the world is working against her and us I guess. She hates it when people still think we're the villainous bad kids who are going to ruin Auradon for everyone."

"It does hurt," Dizzy admits, looking rather sad.

Evie reaches over and puts her arm around her co-designer. The youngest of the VKs had yet to really feel the stigma and judgement that they had felt when they first arrived at Auradon Prep. The glaring looks and the complete shunning from school activities for a time too. The fact that Dizzy hasn't felt it yet was a good thing, meaning that the students were becoming more open-minded and welcoming to Isle kids, but there was still that bias and dread in the back of the "heroes" minds that these children of villains would revert to being wild and wicked again.

Evie knows the whole reason she got Dizzy invited to Auradon, it was to give her a second chance at a better life; a life much more fulfilling and fun than the one she was living at her grandmother's _Curl Up and Dye_ Shop and being bullied by Uma's crew. She knew that the daughter of Drizella Tremaine did not come from one place to be picked on and judged to come to another place to belittled and criticized from where she came from.

"I know it does, but the only thing we can really do is keep our heads up high and prove them all wrong."

"Really?"

"Yep, by doing good things, like finishing these cheerleading outfits," Evie says, ready to get back to work. "I want you to pick out the hairstyles and accessories for the hair too."

"Really?"

"Of course, you're the only person I can trust to do that."

Dizzy squeals happily, clapping her hands together before going through her own big binder of hairstyles that she brought from her grandmother's shop. She was so happy to be here, she had the potential to be a great designer and stylist in the kingdom of Auradon. The young VKs biggest dream was to style the hair of all the famous princesses in the land for a great ball, even her step-aunt's hair. "How about braids like this?"

…

Deep in the forested area of Auradon, next to the Enchanted Lake where Ben and Mal had first fallen in love, the daughter of Ursula has claimed the area for herself in getting her sinister scheme on the road.

"Harry, I'm telling you it's a great idea," Uma says into her shell phone.

The turquoise-haired teen is using her mother's enchanted shell to give her the extra limbs required for her current task. She has lit a small fire underneath a cauldron that is filled with water from the Enchanted Lake to get it going. Uma examines what she has stolen from Fairy Godmother's vault. While she had wanted to steal the wand and make her life of freeing her crew from the Isle much easier, there was no doubt there would have been more guards all over the land searching for it and she would've been found more easily. Here, she is using forgotten materials that were just gathering dust in a museum anyway and putting them to good use… After all, they would be helping the greater good. And what was icing on the cake for her? The fact that she shoved the hoodie she'd stolen, Evie's mirror and Mal's spellbook into Mal's locker to get her framed for the crime. It was a cold dish of revenge that made her smile.

She examines the page in the book she'd stolen on how to create portals. The whole book was filled with ways to enact spells, how to make permanent hexes and how to create curses with just a few simple ingredients. But what Uma is after were portals, ways to get _The Jolly Roger,_ out of the harbour of the Isle considering _The Lost Revenge_ is no longer seaworthy and into the open waters of Auradon. From there she could mount an attack against King Ben and his precious school. She could battle Mal again and win this time, knowing that there would be no Ben this time to intervene… if all went well. Of course, Harry had the easy part of stealing his father's ship, she had to use complicated magic to beat the barrier surrounding the Isle, where magic does not work.

"It's bloody brilliant it is, don't ya think Gil?" Harry says from the other side. The son of Captain Hook was sitting outside _Ursula's Fish and Chips_ restaurant with Gil, drinking whatever they'd stolen from the fridge and sitting under the dark void of the Isle barrier. It is a rather quiet night and both pirates in training are enjoying the cool air while Uma did all the work to bring them to Auradon.

Gil looks up, a little lost on what is happening. He forces a goofy, dumb smile on his face. "Yeah, brilliant." He then drinks from a bottle they'd stolen.

"Once I've mastered this portal-making business, we can go literally anywhere," Uma says, marvelling at the possibilities. "We could conquer so many lands… ones that aren't even ours."

"So, do I seriously have two dads out there?" Gil asks. "If there were two dads, how would I even be born?"

Uma rolls her eyes on the other end. There was a reason the son of Gaston is second-mate not first.

"Your parents never had the talk with you, did they?" Harry asks, also in annoyance.

"The talk about what?"

Both pirates roll their eyes. Uma adds a hazel stone to the boiling cauldron, causing the concoction to turn a murky gray. She looks at the list, adding snowdrops from the forest floor, part of a dragon scale, knowing she'd save the rest for a better batch, the claw of a gryphon, a fleck of gold and a few dead spiders. With the added power from the lake, the portal potion bubbles more rapidly and Uma can feel the power radiating from it. She inhales it as if it will make her more powerful. She adds a pinch of stardust and then pricks her finger to let a drop of blood fall into the cauldron. The potion turns a bright green, illuminating the eyes of one very vengeful VK.

Uma takes a discarded jar and scoops some of the concoction into it. She transforms back into a bi-pedal person and walks towards the edge of the lake.

"You guys near the pier yet?" she asks into the shell.

On the Isle, both Harry and Gil stop what they are doing and remember where they were supposed to be. They frantically scramble towards the harbour. They just make it, Harry having to grab Gil with his hook to prevent the idiot from falling over the edge and into the water.

"Aye, we are now."

"Perfect," Uma smirks.

She waves her hand over the jar, activating the potion with her magic. Uma thinks about where she wants this to go as she stirs the liquid three times until it's shimmering and bright green. She then dumps the mixture into the water. When the brew hits the surface, the water surrounding it begins to spin until it forms a small green whirlpool. It begins sucking air into and it blows Uma's braids around a little bit. Knowing her time is limited, she takes out the object she wants to teleport.

"Apple coming your way," she smirks. She tosses the apple into the centre of the whirlpool, her stomach turning several times in excitement and anticipation. She then waves her hand over it, using her limited magic to close the portal and send it in the proper direction. The green vortex spins for a little while longer before dying out completely and turning back into the dark and ordinary waters of the Enchanted Lake. The daughter of Ursula waits with baited breath.

…

On the Isle, Harry and Gil wait, not quite sure what to expect from their captain. They look around, waiting for something… anything to prove Uma's capabilities with magic.

Suddenly, the waters in front of them at the edge of the harbour begin to churn rapidly. A bright green light is emitted and yet another small whirlpool forms. From the centre of this swirl comes an object flying upwards into the air in front of them. The alleged portal stops churning the waters and Harry Hook reaches out to catch the object in his hand before it hits the water again.

In the pirate's hand, is a bright red apple. Both male pirates grin at each other, the first mate the only one who really understands what has happened. Harry tosses the apple to Gil, who cluelessly takes a bite out of it.

"Fresh and clean," he comments, but Harry isn't listening. He's grinning from ear to ear, happy at the triumph. He lifts the shell phone to his face and speaks one word…

"Success!"


	12. Chapter 11: Stealthy Shrimpy

Chapter 11: Stealthy Shrimpy

Mal sighs heavily as she lugs the bucket she's been using to clean the chemistry lab back to the sink in the janitor's closet. The place reeks of solvents and cleaning solutions, she can't understand why someone would want to be the janitor anywhere, it was tiring and clearly smelled very bad. She had to remind herself to shower once she got back to the dorm.

As she fills the bucket, her mind wanders. Magic would've made the cleaning go so much faster, she was sure that there was a cleaning spell in her mother's book somewhere. Maleficent never had time to waste on cleaning the castle or household chores, there were always too many evil plots to make and perform. However, keeping her promise to Ben and the others, she's suppressing her magic, which is not easy. Not at all... She fills the bucket with warm water and then exits the closet, going back towards the chemistry lab, blowing a lock of her purple hair out of her face in frustration.

She absolutely hates what's been happening, her mind still upset about how her friends acted. They said that they believed her that she didn't take the objects, but she knew deep down it was hard for them to accept that. Mal could be the wild card of the group considering her mother had been the most powerful being on the Isle. But she was not like her mother, she didn't take anything. Although she'd want the spellbook right about now; she had no need for it at any other time and she definitely wouldn't take Evie's mirror without the intention of giving it back to her. She knew the mirror was special to her best friend; it belonged to Evie's mother and it was a connection to home, so why would she steal it from her best friend.

As she begins scrubbing some grime off the walls, she hears footsteps coming down the hall, which is weird. It's after dark and Auradon Prep should be empty, almost all the students would be in their dorms by now. Thinking it might be a teacher working late or someone forgot something, she continues with her labour. She uses a rag to scrub a blue dirt spot near the blackboard when a voice, muffled by the door reaches her ears. The sound of it made her ears tingle and causes shivers to go up to her spine. The voice was familiar…very familiar and it wasn't someone she wanted to see right now.

Could it be? Was she the one causing the problems? It would make a lot of sense.

Going to the classroom door, Mal peeks through the window to see if she can find the source of the voice. Without success, she cautiously sticks her head outside and down the empty halls. The footsteps are still there, but they're getting fainter, however, the voice is now crystal clear.

 _What's my name…?_

"Uma," Mal hisses. She cautiously slips into the hallway and presses herself against a set of lockers. Uma's voice can be heard back in the direction of Fairy Godmother's office. She's obviously talking to someone, but who? On the balls of her feet to muffle any noise, Mal creeps down the hall towards the sounds. Her heart is racing, and she knows that her eyes are glowing. She is going to confront this wicked sea witch junior, they still had a score to settle after what Uma did to Ben, kidnapping him and then hypnotizing him with a love spell. The king of Auradon was the only reason she'd stopped fighting her rival at the Cotillion, he asked them to stop, but Mal knew Uma was a vengeful person and would do whatever she could to get even.

She still can't hear what the daughter of Ursula is saying, but no doubt she was plotting something. She gets closer and closer to the source of the voice, Mal's hands clench into fists, ready to fight at any moment.

She hears a locker slam at the end of the hallway, more footsteps and then a door slamming shut. Mal continues to approach, her heart threatening to break through her chest. It's then she realizes that where she's headed is where her own locker is. Knowing what this could mean, the daughter of Maleficent picks up the pace. She races to her locker.

She gasps when she finds that the protection spells she'd put in place is gone, no doubt Uma undid it. She frantically unlocks it and begins digging through her things. She'd placed her backpack in there when she started cleaning to keep it safe. It was still there, along with the hoodie, mirror, and her spellbook. All of this surprised her because she'd assumed that these objects were what Uma wanted to use to maybe break the Isle barrier or something. All her school books are still there too. What the heck was Uma after if she didn't take anything? At least this confirmed Mal's suspicions of someone putting the objects in her locker. It all became clear to her, Uma was trying to frame her for the crimes, whether to ruin her reputation at Auradon or to even get her kicked out of school so the sea witch to take her place, Mal couldn't tell, but she knew she had to find Uma.

In desperation, the purple-haired teen shoves the mirror, hoodie and spellbook into her bag to keep them safe. Obviously, Uma had access to her locker and nothing was safe any longer. Mal pulls her backpack onto her shoulders to bring back to her dorm.

She then goes to the door that the daughter of Ursula likely used to exit the building. She peers outside into the darkness. She couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. There is still the distinct scent of seaweed and shrimp… Uma's signature fragrance. She wants to go after her rival, but there'd be little chance she'd find the daughter of Ursula in the dark and the campus of Auradon was so big, the pirate captain could be anywhere by now. With a very heavy sigh, she forces herself away from the window and back to the chemistry lab.

She finishes cleaning to the best of her abilities, even scraping residue from the roof. Once she's done, she's very tired and sore. She goes back to her dorm, ready to fall asleep. She finds Evie already dreaming as she sneaks in, laying her bag down. She quickly opens it to shove the mirror, hoodie and spellbook under her bed. They'd be safe there for now. It's then that as her hand is rummaging through her backpack, Mal's heart drops into her stomach. She realizes that her bag was lighter… much lighter. Something is missing. Her heart goes into her throat as she desperately searches for the book… the book about the different worlds. She begins to panic inside, realizing that Uma had stolen something… something very important, but why would she need it? What was Shrimpy planning?

 **A/N: Please review. What do you think Uma's plans are?**


	13. Chapter 12: Theories and Mysteries

Chapter 12: Theories and Mysteries

Evie wakes up the next morning to find Mal completely out cold. She's dressed in her lilac silk pyjamas and her purple hair is sprawled outwards like a big fan. The daughter of the Evil Queen wonders if her best friend is still mad at her for yesterday. She really didn't mean to hurt her feelings, but she should have turned the objects over to Fairy Godmother immediately. The four of them knew that Mal wouldn't trash the headmistress's office and steal things… any longer. She'd shown that she's changed; granted it was slower and her path did diverge at some point, but Mal was back on track, being the person, she wanted to be. The VKs would've backed up Mal's claims of not stealing them and they would have supported her the entire time. Now… the daughter of Maleficent was going rogue again, taking care of things her way.

Evie notices something unfamiliar sticking out from underneath Mal's bed. She kneels down and pulls out the hoodie, mirror, and spellbook.

"Oh, Mal…" Evie sighs heavily. "This is not going to end well for any of us."

…

When both girls walk down the halls of Auradon, the school is again buzzing with activity. Mal prayed that her little chemistry incident had been forgotten. She mostly tries to hide her face from everyone. Evie bites her lip, wanting to confront her bestie about the mirror and spellbook. The right thing was that it should be returned because if not, it's going to get much worse.

As the girls are getting things from their lockers, Carlos runs up to them.

"Are you guys okay?" he asks.

"What do you mean?" Mal asks.

"I think you'd better come to see for yourself."

The son of Cruella De Vil drags his two friends down the hall and out in front of the school. Again, a large group of students, including Jane, Jay, Lonnie, Dizzy, Chad, and Audrey had gathered. They seemed to be staring at something that was in the school.

"What are they…?" Evie asks but stops mid-sentence.

Mal turns and her jaw drops open.

Spray-painted right on the front of the school in purple and green paint are the words:

 ** _Rotten to the Core_**

 ** _Long Live the Isle_**

The letters are spread out across the face of the building as if it were a giant piece of paper to be written on. Additionally, the sign saying **Welcome to Auradon Prep** is blotted out with more spray paint and says **_Long Live Evil_** _._

"That's one serious paint job," Jay says. Lonnie elbows him for the stupid comment and he rubs his shoulder.

"Definitely an improvement," Tallia, the daughter of Tinkerbelle snickers. She most likely meant it sarcastically, the petite blonde girl with her tips dyed green and her affinity for green leather made her a rebel that would have fit right in on the Isle. Allie, the daughter of Alice, shakes her head at her friend in disappointment for the offhanded comment.

"It would certainly take someone with the ability to fly to reach up so high," Whitney, daughter of Snow White observes to her twin brother Simon nodding in agreement.

"Why would anyone do this to the school?" Audrey asks.

"Isn't it obvious?" Chad pipes up. Immediately, everyone around him rolls their eyes. "Someone is trying to send us a message. Someone with connections to a certain island. Trouble just seems to come off the Isle of the Lost," Chad says to Audrey.

Mal's eyes glow green again as she wants to turn around and put Chad in his place, but she already got in enough trouble with chemistry today. She takes a few steps away, out of earshot from Chad's obnoxious comments. In fact, most of the VKs follow her to escape the indirect insults.

Several of the teachers have gathered, including Queen Belle and King Beast/Adam. Mal goes over to find Ben standing among them. He smiles at her and accepts her into a hug.

"Pretty bad huh?" he asks her.

"Yes," Mal says.

"This has gotten out of control," Grumpy, one of the teachers is saying. "First Fairy Godmother's office and now this, what is next? When will this anarchy stop?"

"I seriously doubt it's anarchy," Ben says, trying to keep a calm and level-head about everything.

"But why would anyone do this?" Queen Belle asks.

"To send a message I would assume," Fairy Godmother mutters.

Mal swallows a lump in her throat when the headmistress looks directly at her, boring holes through her with a glare. Mal keeps her arms wrapped around Ben, trying to ignore the gathering eyes on her and her friends.

"It has to be one of the Isle children, who else could it have been," Grumpy says.

"Now hold on!" Ben says immediately, coming to his friends' defence. "There is no proof that the VKs had anything to do with this. For all we know, it was just some vandal or a few people playing a sick joke."

"Sick jokes are their specialty," Grumpy hisses, eyeing Mal as well.

The daughter of Maleficent releases her boyfriend and goes to stand with her friends, who attempt to stand strong and firm against these accusations Only Dizzy seems to be much timider than before and she shrinks behind Evie and Jay, not wanting to be noticed any further.

However, it seems several other teachers are now eyeing the group suspiciously. Mal clenches her fists and tries to remain composed, no doubt her glowing eyes would not be a good image to portray at the moment.

"Come now Grumpy," Queen Belle reasons. "There is no way that these children of the Isle could even reach up that far. It had to have been done by someone very big or by someone who could fly."

"What about the dragon girl?" Grumpy hisses, eyeing the purple-haired teen. "You saw what she could do at the Royal Cotillion, why not her?"

This is too much for Mal, she turns around and storms away from the scene, not caring what happens. Tears are burning her eyes as she continues to get away from all this. Her stomach twists in anger and sadness. She ignores her friends' calls for her to come back as she hikes further and further away.

She hated this so much. The whole point of coming to Auradon was to get a second chance at a better life, but clearly, the stigma would always be there. She was a child of the Isle and while she was proud of it, no one else was. It was just making things worse for her and her friends. It was obvious that no matter what happened at the school or to the school, the Villain Kids were to blame.

She continues walking until she reaches the special place where she and Ben fell in love. She leans against the same pillar she'd been against more than a year ago, still so confused about her life and her feelings, nothing seemed to have changed. She lets the tears fall quietly as she gazes out onto the Enchanted Lake. She wonders if anything would ever be normal for her… She just wants to get away, find a place where she wouldn't be defined by her past or where she had come from. Where she could be a normal teenage girl and do things with Ben and her friends, travel and see the world; no Isle, no Uma, no magic… where she could be like everyone else.

As she continues staring at the lake, she notices something. At first, it seems like an illusion created by the trees or the sunlight, but it was too bright to reflect the leaves. Curiously, she takes a step closer. Mal goes to the edge of the lake and kneels. She notices a green residue of some kind that was slowly lapping against the muddy shore. Using her fingers, Mal collects a sample of it on her fingertips. It looked like the residue of some kind of spell or potion. Her mind immediately thinks of Uma; the wretched pirate captain had stolen a lot of potion supplies, but what could she be using it for? What purpose did using the lake water serve?

"Mal!"

The daughter of Maleficent stands to see Ben walking towards her. She can see the sympathy and concern on his face as he approaches her.

"How did you find me?" she asks.

"You're a creature of habit, whenever you're sad or upset, you back to the start. Since your motorbike is still in the garage, I figured you'd be here…" he smiles.

The purple-haired teen can't help but smile too. No matter how bad she felt at any given time, Ben had the ability to make her smile.

"The place where we fell in love," he says, stepping a bit closer to her.

"And the place where the love potion wore off," Mal smirks.

Ben reaches up and grabs her hand, the one that was not covered in the strange residue. He turns her towards him, Mal becomes lost in his hazel-green eyes, like so many times before and just melts. All her anger and hardness dissolves into nothing but love and compassion.

"It's the moment I realized how much you meant to me," Ben says quietly.

She leans in and their lips meet. She tries to memorize the taste of his lips, salty and slightly sweet, like honey. She wraps her arms around his shoulders, while he holds on to her waist, pulling her closer to him. The two smile as they kiss, their true love once again shining through anything.

When the two break apart, Mal gasps.

"What?" Ben asks.

Mal wipes the green residue from her King's cheek. She shows the substance to him.

"What is that?"

"I don't know," she says. "The lake washed it ashore. Look…"

The couple goes to where the daughter of Maleficent had made the discovery. Ben takes a sample on his fingers too, rubbing it to get a sense of the texture.

"Have you seen this before?" Mal asks.

"No, have you?"

"No. Do you think it washed away some kind of spell?"

"Not likely, the lake usually just dissolves any kind of enchantments," Ben explains.

"Whatever Uma is up to, she's using the lake."

"Uma?" Ben asks in surprise. He immediately goes on high alert. "Is she here?"

"I think she might be," Mal says.

"How do you know?"

"When I was cleaning the chemistry lab last night…"

"Right sorry, I should've come to help you," he cuts her off. Always such a gentleman.

"It was my mess, I had to clean it up. Anyways I heard someone's voice in the hall and I recognized it as Uma's."

"Are you sure it was hers?" he inquires.

"It's a voice you won't soon forget," she says.

Ben nods in agreement. "So, did you see her?"

"No, I only heard her voice. She was talking to someone, probably through a cell phone or something and I heard a locker slam before the nearest door shut. I ran and realized that she had broken into my locker even after I'd put an enchantment on it."

"Why did you put an enchantment on it?" Ben asks. Mal can see the shift in his eyes, the fact that she'd used magic. She swallows realizing that Ben didn't know about the fact that her spell book, Evie's mirror, and a hoodie that the thief probably wore were found in her locker.

"I did it in case whoever broke into Fairy Godmother's vault would try to break into my locker."

"Why would they want to break into your locker?" the king asks, raising an eyebrow. Mal realizes what this might be implying.

"No clue, I guess I just went a little overboard with protection."

"They weren't after your spellbook, were they?" Ben asks nervously, he really doesn't want to go through another fight about magic with her again. He waits patiently for an answer.

"No, my spell book was stolen after I donated it."

"Right," he says letting out a slight sigh of relief.

"I know I used magic and I shouldn't have, but Uma did steal something from me."

"What was it?"

"The library book about all the different worlds."

"The one we were reading together?"

Mal nods.

"Oh god, what could she be planning?" he asks, becoming a bit nervous.

"With Uma, you never can tell, but we know it's not something good."

"What surprises me is that she didn't steal the wand. That's why she kidnapped me on the Isle. If she wanted to break the barrier around the Isle, it could've been done very easily with it."

"She must be after something else," Mal says.

"And she's the one who vandalized the school then," he deduces.

Mal lets a sigh of relief out, glad that Ben believed that she wouldn't do what she was being accused of by other teachers. "In her octopus form, she can do almost anything."

"That would explain how she was able to get up so high to spray-paint." Ben looks down at his hand. "I want to get this green stuff tested," He grabs a rock and adds what globs of goo he can get onto it. "Maybe Doug can test it for us to see what it's made of. And I'll have security patrol the grounds after dark to ensure nothing like that happens again. We'll also have to start looking for that book."

"Sounds like a plan," she nods. She goes up and kisses Ben on the cheek, happy to see that he believed in her theory and he was doing something about it.

"Let's go," he says smiling.

The couple rushes back towards Auradon, hand in hand, ready to put their plan into action.

Not long after they've left, a turquoise-haired girl comes out of the tree line, looking angry. She wanted to vomit after watching the two-true love-birds suck face right in front of her, but she was furious that Mal was onto her and that Ben was doing things to stall her plans. Her gloved hands nearly crush the shell-phone in frustration. She looks into an area in the trees where's she's stashed her portal potions. She knows she's going to have to step up her game.

"Get the ship ready tonight Harry," she hisses into the shell. "Change of plans, we have to step up our game."

 _ **Please review, it really helps me out.**_


	14. Chapter 13: Risky Business

Chapter 13: Risky Business

"You sure this is going to work?" Regina asks as Crystal leans in front of a cauldron in a thicket not too far from the outside of _The Rabbit Hole_ bar. The water inside is just starting to boil as the younger of the two sorceresses continues to look through the potions book that Gideon had found for his older sister in the library. The sun is setting behind the trees that surrounded the two women as they worked on creating portal potions… well, Crystal is, Regina is simply there to hand her ingredients and seemingly be the voice of reason.

The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin shakes her head. "I have absolutely no clue."

"I don't understand why you're going through all this trouble for Granny. Just give her a bean and call it a day," the former Evil Queen sighs.

"You know beans just can't be given away like that; Tiny gets mad when you take just one and she would need two to get here and back. Besides, Granny doesn't ask for much most of the time, in fact, she let her restaurant be taken to Camelot once. Also, I found out that our family racks up a huge bill with her so if you'd rather pay for 28 years of free coffee you got from her when you were mayor during the curse, this is how I'm repaying her. I need a crow's foot…"

Regina hands her the ingredient she desires. Many of the supplies had been acquired from the former Evil Queen's vault. "I'd rather write a cheque than perform untested magic,"

"Like you never tried experimenting with magic before," the daughter of the Dark One scoffs. She adds a scrap of wheat to the bubbling water, causing it to turn a brown colour.

"Zelena has and that back-fired pretty spectacularly on her."

"I'm just trying to find a way to travel between realms not mess with the space-time continuum. I'm also doing it out of good nature, not revenge. Hand me a hazel stone."

Miss Mills just sighs. The girl is as stubborn as her father is, but at least she was trying to help someone then gain power. "Also, how am I going to be able to replenish my potion supply."

"I'll help you find more I promise," Crystal sighs, getting sick of listening to her friend's nagging concern.

"Sure you will," Regina mutters sarcastically. How many times had she heard that line before?

"Look the only reason you're not at home watching reruns of _90210_ is that you're the only one I trust to help me. My dad wouldn't help me unless his dagger was melting, Belle wants to avoid magic for as long as possible, your sister is trying to toilet train your niece, Snow has to prepare exams for her class, David is on farmer time, Killian doesn't know squat about this kind of magic, and Emma's having a baby so…"

"Great, I am your last resort. You think this might not be a little bit dangerous?"

"That's why I asked you," she says smirking. When Regina scowls at her, Crystal laughs. "I'm kidding, it's why I'm doing it away from any buildings and I have you to help me since you have much more experience with potions than I do. I don't want to suck Storybrooke up into a giant wormhole and send us to the Netherworld."

"Is that even a real place?" Regina asks.

"You think that since there's a Wish Realm and an Underworld, there can't be a Netherworld? Regina, if there's one thing I've learned since I've come here is that almost anything can exist. In fact, I could probably summon Beetlejuice and he'd be real. Want to call his name three times? I do want Michael Keaton's autograph."

Regina rolls her eyes, very much used to Rumpel's daughter's sarcasm.

Crystal adds snowdrops, Snow's favourite flower, part of a dragon scale, either from Maleficent or Lily but the former Evil Queen cannot remember, the claw of a gryphon, a fleck of gold from her father's stash, and a few dead spiders. She adds a pinch of stardust; the concoction turns a gold colour and then the young enchantress cuts her finger allows a few drops of blood to enter the cauldron.

The liquid turns a very bright green and a beam of light shoots upward from the trees. It begins to bubble very rapidly, too fast. Crystal swallows hard and backs away.

"What's happening?" Regina swallows, taking a few steps back.

The younger of the two begins reading the potion instructions again, trying to figure out where she went wrong.

"Hit the ground," she says.

"WHAT?" Regina shouts.

"I said hit the ground…!"

At that moment, a large explosion erupts from the cauldron. Green and black smoke cover the clearing and spread out into the trees, dissipating from its former position.

When both Crystal and Regina pick their heads up out of the dirt, both are covered from head to toe in green powder mixed with ash on their faces. Crystal hacks out smoke from her lungs and slowly stands up. Fortunately, the cauldron is still in one piece, but completely devoid of any kind of potion. When Regina stands up again, she looks down at her clothes and then at the instigator of this mess. Both of them looked like her wicked half-sister in her true witch form. It was horrifying to think about.

"Too much blood and spiders…" Crystal says to herself, looking down at the book, which she had shielded from any harm with her body. "And not enough crows feet."

The former Evil Queen glares at the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin with such annoyance and anger, she can feel a fireball forming in her hands. One of her favourite casual outfits had been ruined and both of them had nearly been killed in the blast.

"We'll do better next time,"

" ** _WE_** are not doing anything next time. This is **_YOU_** and only **_YOU_** from now on!" Regina snaps, doing her best not to raise her voice. She leaves all her ingredients in a heap. "This is on **_YOU_**. **_I_** am not going to waste my time doing something that might get me killed."

"Oh, come on Regina, what's the point of doing anything if you never take any risks?"

"Risks that almost get us killed and ruined one of my favourite outfits."

"Oh please, magic can fix it."

"I don't want magic to fix the necklace that Robin gave me," she snaps back.

Crystal stops immediately. She gazes at the gold chain around her friend's neck; she'd completely forgotten about the golden arrow that the deceased outlaw had given his one true love. The golden arrow was not only a symbol of Robin Hood as a whole but also of cupid's golden arrow, meant to find the individual's one true love, which Regina had foolishly wasted by turning it dark and trying to find the person she hated… who at the time was Snow White, but actually turned out to be herself. She wasted it once and she wasn't going to do it again. The golden arrow had struck her heart and she would always love her Robin Hood.

She swallows a large lump of guilt in her throat, reaching into her pocket and taking out her mother's golden heart-shaped locket, the one that held the picture of mother and daughter in their happier days and with her mother's name engraved on the front. A gift from her father to her mother, a symbol of love… not true love, but good love, one that would protect the heart from danger. The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin wipes the tears from her eyes and looks at her friend.

"You're right, I'm sorry Regina, can I buy you a new outfit and free coffee next week?"

"Make it two outfits and coffee with a muffin," the former Evil Queen says, it was now her turn to smirk.

"Fair enough, but we're not spending six hours in one store."

"Deal."

The two women shook hands to seal the deal, much like her father, Crystal was well known for her negotiating, something in her own nature.

"I'll figure it out tomorrow, let's go home and shower."

"That's the best idea I've heard all day," Regina says as the two walk away from the clearing to go home and get cleaned up.

 **Please follow and review.**


	15. Chapter 14: Made, Not Born

Chapter 14: Made, Not Born

"So, you think Uma's cooking up some kind of scheme?" Carlos asks.

Jay, Carlos, Mal, Dizzy, and Ben wait outside the chemistry lab as both Doug and Evie work together to test the substance that the royal couple had found by the lake.

"It wouldn't be the first time," Mal scoffs as she leans her head on Ben's shoulder.

"It's interesting that she hasn't gone after the wand though, that would be the easiest thing to gain control of anything she wanted," Jay says.

"Maybe she's just doing that to throw everyone off her trail," Carlos suggests.

"Well, we'll know more once Evie and Doug test it," Ben says.

The bell rings and students begin to file out into the hallways on the way to their next classes. Many sets of eyes wander in the direction of the Isle children and the whispers start almost immediately. A couple of kids point to them as if their fellow peers were an exhibit at a museum. Mal does her best to ignore the stares and pointing, but she can feel the rage against them bubbling inside her stomach. Obviously, all the VKs were being watched; after all, they were the implied vandalizers of the school.

Ben's phone keeps going off continuously, but he does his best to ignore it. Mal knows it's his secretary begging him to come and deal with royal duties.

"You sure you don't want to go back to your office," she offers to him.

"No," he says. "I'm staying right here with you. No one is going to say anything bad as long as the King of Auradon is with you."

"You know we can take care of ourselves, right?" Carlos asks, not exactly liking the idea of being treated like children in need of protection.

"I'm as involved in this as you guys are. Uma maybe from the Isle, but she just wants to be with the rest of us here. She wants a better life and it's likely that she wants attention from these actions. It might even be a cry for help. She may be hard and evil, but evil is not born, it's made."

Mal looks at Ben and smiles. She knows that he has a good heart and wants to see the good in people, but the daughter of Maleficent had grown up with the daughter of Ursula and it was definitely not what he thinks. A bad childhood and parent couldn't excuse the deep-seated rage and evil inside of this pirate captain. She was hardened to the absolute core and had likely been born that way. While most of the VKs had been raised bad, they'd all been led to believe that they were born bad and would always follow in their parents' footsteps. However, their second chances had obviously changed this mindset, but when Uma was given that chance, she selfishly took advantage of it, trying to ruin Mal and Ben at the same time. It was almost impossible that the slimy sea-witch's offspring would ever change, but the purple-haired teen just lets Ben go on thinking this until he's proven wrong once again. She admires his optimism and hope, but unfortunately, it would not be enough to change Uma.

Just then the door to the chemistry lab opens and Doug and Evie come out. Doug has his notebook and wears goggles and a lab coat. Evie wears similar equipment with goggles perched on her head and a beaker of green liquid in her hand that has a rubber seal on the top to prevent the specimen from being contaminated further.

"Well?" Mal asks.

"What did you find out?" Ben asks.

"It's definitely a potion of some kind," Doug answers. He reads from a slip of paper in his book. "It's made of many organic materials."

"What kind of materials?" Carlos asks, as Dude comes up to the group, to which his master scoops him into his arms.

"Well, it's mainly made of water from the Enchanted Lake, giving it a lot of magical properties. We also detected plant matter, possibly a flower of some kind, a bit of gold and rock, but mainly animal material…"

"Like what?" Jay asks.

"Crow, I think," Doug says, examining his notes carefully. "Spider, gryphon, and I am pretty sure human."

The last one makes the group shudder slightly.

"Human?" Dizzy asks nervously.

"Blood," Evie says to soothe her friends' worries.

"Type A from the testing," Doug says.

"Any bones?" the dog asks. "I'm starved."

"Dude, if you're hungry just tell me," Carlos groans, putting his pet down and going into his backpack to fish out some dog treats.

"No bones, but it definitely has magical potential."

"What kind of magical potential?" Mal implores a little more harshly.

"We don't know," Evie shrugs.

"You seriously spent all that time in there and you can't tell us what it does?!" the purple-haired teen snorts angrily.

"Chemistry is different than magic Mal, it only tells us what it's made of. If you want magic, go talk to the Fairy Godmother of the school."

"Well this is just great," the daughter of Maleficent sighs. "Again, Uma is two steps ahead of us."

"Who's Uma again?" Jane says, coming up to the group. Her arms are wrapped around her books and she smiles at everyone. Carlos goes to put his arm around her.

"She's someone we think is causing all the trouble at the school," Ben explains.

"She's the one who was at the Cotillion right?" Jane asks.

"Yes, the one with eight extra legs," Jay adds.

"Well, what does she want?"

"Still trying to figure that out," Mal groans.

"But it has to do with this," Evie says, showing the beaker of liquid to Fairy Godmother's daughter.

"What is it?"

"Some kind of potion," Doug explains. "With magical properties."

"You should probably take it to my mom," Jane says. "She might be able to help."

Mal feels deep inside that she doesn't trust the headmistress anymore. For all she knows, the fairy will accuse her or her friends of making the potion and find some way to pin everything that's happened on them. She's just getting sick and tired of this, she wants to find Uma and put an end to it. "Good luck with that. And while you guys waste your time doing that, I'm going to find Shrimpy before she does any more damage."

She's about to walk away, but Ben grabs her arm. She turns to look at him. She feels herself becoming very annoyed, everything about this is driving her insane and she just wants to put a stop to it.

"Mal, please let the guards figure this out. We don't need anyone in more trouble."

"So, you think I'm trouble?" Mal snaps back.

"No," Ben says. "I just don't want the teachers to have any more of a motive to blame everything on the VKs."

Everyone can see a flicker of green in the dragon girl's eyes. Obviously, she's not happy about this implication at all.

"So, you think we did this?"

"Of course not, Mal, I just don't want you to get hurt."

"I can take of myself, I don't need your "kingly" power to protect me. I'm going to stop this my own way." she says firmly, before turning to go down the hall in frustration.

Ben wants to go after her, hurt; once again that they were fighting, but Evie puts her hand on his shoulder.

"Give her some time to cool off," the blue-haired teen says. "She's just upset and wants this to be over."

"Don't we all?" Jay asks, scratching the back of his neck.

"I think we should take this to Fairy Godmother and then go about our day like nothing's happened," Ben says, watching as Mal disappears around the corner. He can feel his heart sink into his stomach at seeing her go so angrily. Once again, his girlfriend is pulling away from him. "At least until we know what we're up against."

"Okay," Carlos says. He turns to his girlfriend. "Can I carry your books for you, Jane?"

She smiles widely at him and allows the son of Cruella to do so. The couple walks off together, with Dude trotting along behind them. Jay splits to go get ready for gym and Doug offers to take the sample to the headmistress. Dizzy hugs Evie before going to gather her books for her class, leaving Evie and the king by themselves.

"Don't beat yourself up," Evie says gently to Ben. Once again, she's trying to be the middle woman in Ben and Mal's relationship. "Her anger sometimes blurs her judgement and she lets her feelings get the best of her."

"I wish she'd just let us help her, she thinks she has to do this all on her own."

"I know and that's probably because she's been on her own for so long… We were all pretty much born without love from our parents and we've had to take care of ourselves. She just feels like she has to take care of everything her way and alone."

"But she's not now," Ben sighs.

"I know, and she'll realize that soon," Evie says, reassuringly.

 _I hope…_

 ** _Please Review._**


	16. Chapter 15: Looking After Me

Chapter 15: Looking After Me

Mal spends the rest of the day hiding from her friends and planning how she was going to catch Uma in the act. She perches herself on a high wall on the far side of Auradon's campus, writing down her plans and trying to fight back tears. She did feel bad for lashing out at Ben and everyone else, but she couldn't take it any longer. They weren't going to do anything to stop this, just accept the blame and wait for the guards to do something. Mal wasn't like that, she'd rather do things herself, she didn't want to wait. She took care of herself, never relying on anyone. The words of her wicked and horned mother echo in her head.

 _"_ _No one is going to look after you, the world is just going to let you down and turn their backs on you. Learn this now my little-winged demon, for I will never be there either. You must rely on one person to help you, yourself"_

While the words seemed hurtful, there was some wisdom to what she said, and it was true. Her mother was never there for her; instead of using her daughter for evil schemes or ignoring her altogether and this is all Mal knew from the time she could walk. She'd learned to take care of herself and she never thought anyone could help her until she met Evie, Carlos, and Jay. They had her back, granted they all had to earn each other's trust first, but now she knows they'd never let her down. Now Ben was one of those people and several more Auradon students who are now her friends… at least, she thought that until Chad started blaming the VKs for all the damage to the school. The thought that maybe her mother was right, and she'd have to look after herself, although her plan to expose Uma was to save all her VK friends from further ridicule.

The purple-haired teen sits on the wall, writing her plan in her journal. She reads it over and over until she's memorized it completely. She knows she'll have to start breaking a few rules and use magic to do so, but she hoped it would be overlooked once the daughter of Ursula was caught in a fish net.

The bell rings, signifying the end of the school day. Mal watches all the students exit the buildings, either heading for their dorms or towards the cafeteria for dinner. At one point she sees Carlos and Jane, with Dude trotting behind them. The two hold hands and look rather happy. Mal feels the envy and guilt of lashing out at Ben. Why couldn't they be like normal couples, instead of the Royal one? Why couldn't they have quiet moments with no responsibilities or worries about the kingdom and just be together?

Once the grounds are relatively quiet, Mal climbs down from the wall and heads towards her dorm. She knew that Evie and anyone else would be getting dinner at this point, leaving her free to get what she needed.

She slips into her dorm room and goes under her bed. She finds Evie's mirror and her spellbook, exactly where she'd left them. She shoves the objects into her bag, along with the hoodie. She pulls her hair back into a ponytail and puts on her favourite purple leather jacket. She then slips back out and down towards the place where'd she'd met Ariel. She knew that since Uma's element is water, she'd be hanging out in the place where she's the least likely to be detected. While the daughter of Maleficent first thought of staking out the Enchanted Lake, she feels that if Uma wanted to do something involving the Isle, she'd be near the ocean.

The sun was starting to set when she makes it to the rocky shore. With the light fading, she knows that she has to hurry. She slips into some nearby trees to create a sort of stake out place. She then holds the mirror up and takes out her spellbook, she searches for the spell she needs. She knew that usually only Evie or the Evil Queen could use the mirror, but the daughter of Maleficent had since found a loophole around this. It would only be temporary, but that's all she would need

" _When all is said and done,_

 _Have this mirror work for more than one_ …" Mal recites.

Immediately, the handheld mirror begins to glow in her hand. Mal can see the clouds forming within the reflective surface, meaning that it was working. She knows what comes next.

" _Mirror, mirror in my hand,_

 _Show what Uma wants in this land?"_

A faint image begins to appear within the mirror and Mal squints to get a better look. She sits with her back against a tree near the shoreline to be comfortable.

The image of the ocean appears and then there is the all too familiar turquoise braided hair of the daughter of Ursula. The shell around her neck is glowing and she has her tentacles pushing along the rough surface of the sea. Mal can see the faint outline of the dome that protected Auradon from the Isle.

"I knew it," Mal hisses, smiling to herself.

The daughter of Maleficent squints into the tiny mirror and it looks like Uma is holding something in her arms. She can't tell what it is, but it seems to have some greenish tint in the fading light.

She continues to watch as Uma reaches the barrier surrounding Isle. She can see the faint outline of Captain Hook's ship, _The Jolly Roger_ , on the opposite side of the barrier. All Isle children knew that after Uma's failed attempt to find King Triton's Trident and trade it for getting off the Isle, made her own ship, _The Lost Revenge_ , unable to sail ever again. Why not steal the fastest ship on the seas to make a quick getaway?

"Okay, boys," Uma says, Mal hearing what her rival is saying through the mirror. "We've got one chance at this."

Uma pulls out the jar in her hands. She then uses one of her tentacles to toss the jar at the barrier. It smashes once it hits the wall, the liquid pouring out and into the ocean. Mal watches as the ocean where the potion hit begins to glow green and swirl around, what shocks her the most is that the green whirlpool seemed to be mostly on the inside, where her ship was. The light becomes brighter to the point that Mal can barely see through the looking-glass. Uma then uses her magic; the blue magical light is being cast out of her hands to make the green portal bigger and bigger. Somehow the magic cancelling barrier can't stop it from getting into the harbour of the Isle. The more power she feeds into it, the larger the thing gets. The ship seems to sail towards the portal until it hits the surrounding current and is sucked into it.

"Think about where you want to go boys!" Uma hollers as the ship is sucked into the portal.

Mal can't tell what's happened but suddenly a new green portal opens up not far from the shore and to her horror, _The Jolly Roger_ surfaces right in Auradon harbour. Mal shoves the mirror back into her bag and stands up. She watches as Uma now swims back towards the beach where her mortal enemy is hiding. The laughter of the wicked sea witch's daughter echoes everywhere, along with her crew, shouting and celebrating, finally free from the Isle.

Mal knows she has to get back and warn everyone, finally being able to clear her name and reveal the truth. She slips through the trees knowing she has to stay hidden. She decides to use the long way just in case the new band of pirates spots her. Her mind is racing, what would Uma want now that a ship and her crew are here? Terrorize Auradon no doubt. When she comes out near the Enchanted Lake, Mal notices something. It just barely catches her eye as she passes. Wanting to ignore it, she takes a few steps forward, but unfortunately, her curiosity gets the best of her and she stops. She finds a bundle of things next to a tree.

She recognizes the light blue hue of a discarded coat and the rancid smell that goes with it, she knew that it was Uma's. The coat is being used to hold things. Without hesitation, Mal opens it. She finds two books and various potion ingredients, no doubt Uma hid them here, planning to come back for them later. The daughter of Maleficent immediately recognizes the book that was stolen from her locker and she shoves it into her bag without a second thought. Knowing that she's just found more evidence to prove her case, she takes everything and hides it in a different spot, knowing that if she had to bring the teachers and guards over for proof, only she could find them. Satisfied that she has enough evidence, Mal runs back towards Auradon Prep.

She rushes through the halls and begins knocking on Ben's door, knowing he'd be working late.

"It's open,"

Mal sticks her head in, her green eyes meeting his brown ones.

"Mal?" he gasps, immediately standing up. He walks around his desk but stops weary of approaching her, wondering if she was still mad. "Look about earlier…"

"Screw earlier, I saw Uma and I know what she's up to. We have to warn the school because Auradon is going to be invaded."

 ** _The crew is here. Please Review_**


	17. Chapter 16: Inner Villain

Chapter 16: Inner Villain

Mal drags Ben down the hall in such a hurry that he can barely keep up with her.

"Mal slow down!" the king insists, trying to bring her frantic mood to a stop so he can comprehend the situation. He plants his feet, forcing Mal to stop pulling him in order to not pull his arm off.

"Ben, we don't have time… Uma and her crew are coming to Auradon."

"How do you know that?"

"I saw her. She opened some kind of portal, probably made out of the ingredients she stole from the vault, and she cast it on the edge of the barrier to the Isle. Then she fed her own magic into it, allowing her ship to travel through the portal."

"Wait, how did you see her? The Isle is miles from the coastline."

Mal swallows. Knowing she'd have to come clean eventually, she pulls her bag off her shoulders and removes an all too familiar looking glass.

"Evie's mirror?" Ben asks in surprise.

Mal swallows hard, knowing he hated it when she used magic.

"Where… where did you…?" he stammers. He doesn't want to believe Mal would steal things, especially from Fairy Godmother's vault of all places.

"It was in my locker…" she admits at a low volume.

Ben looks down and he recognizes an all too familiar spellbook sticking out. Without hesitation, he pulls it out of the bag. Mal swallows again, her eyes becoming wide and her stomach turns violently. She wishes beyond all belief now that she had heeded her friends' words about returning the objects to Fairy Godmother. Yes, it would've made her look bad, but at least it wouldn't lead to another fight between her and Ben. She can see the hurt and confusion on his face, she can feel tears fighting their way to the surface of her eyes.

"Ben… I can explain…"

"You'd better…" a voice from behind the couple says.

Standing in the hallway is Grumpy, Fairy Godmother, more teachers, and several guards, probably assigned to patrol the campus. Neither of teenagers could tell how long the adults had been listening, but obviously, it was more than enough.

Mal begins to panic inside, her heart threatens to break her ribs now with the mounting anxiety, fear, and anger. Tears are now at the edge of her green eyes, she wants to speak up, but the words are failing to come out. Her breath begins to rapidly increase as she stands there, with the assumption that she had done all the horrible things that had been happening at the school. The daughter of Maleficent stands almost completely frozen, unable to run and unable to speak.

"I believe Mal here has some explaining to do," Fairy Godmother says, crossing her arms in disappointment.

…

The purple-haired teen now sits in the headmistress' office, her heart sinking into her chest. Things could not possibly get any worse for her. Why did this have to happen? This is not what they should be worrying about. Mal wants to tell them that Uma, Harry, Gil, and their war frats travelled through the barrier of the Isle, with the help of magic, and are now likely on a rampage. Who knows what kind of plans they had up their sleeves…?

Ben stands next to Mal, doing his very best to stay by her side the entire time, as he had long since promised to do so. However, in his mind, he is questioning everything again. He knows Mal wouldn't steal or vandalize the school… she wasn't like that anymore, but unfortunately, the evidence was there. He becomes very nervous and afraid of how she must be feeling right now. He knows that he has to believe her, she wouldn't do something like this. But he knows it is about to become much worse. Now that the adults were involved, he knew that Fairy Godmother would've called his parents to help them, even though he is the king now. He's not sure how to face them and stand by Mal like this. It was hard enough being the king, but to now have his girlfriend basically put on trial, makes it ten times worse.

Sure enough, to both the couple's dread, the royal king and queen arrive, Ben's father is dressed in a casual blue suit and Belle in a yellow sundress and hat. The two looked like they had just come from an evening stroll or having tea on their balcony in the warm air. While their attire is pleasant, the looks on their faces are less than desirable. While the royal couple has come to accept Mal and treat her with great respect, even considering her part of the family; the daughter of Maleficent could always sense, as with anyone from Auradon, the hesitation and anxiety they felt being near her.

The guards, teachers, Grumpy, and Fairy Godmother all give a little bow before turning back to the issue at hand.

"What seems to be the trouble?" King Adam asks.

"We believe that we have caught the culprit responsible for the vandalism and robbery of Fairy Godmother's vault," Grumpy says.

"But I didn't do it!" Mal protests. Her eyes flicker with a bit of green light in her frustration.

"Why do you assume that it's Mal?" Queen Belle asks, with concern. She knew very well that Grumpy could be a rash and harsh man, and that he particularly did not care for the Villain Children at Auradon.

"We found these in her bag," Fairy Godmother says. She places the mirror and spellbook onto her desk. The royal couple gets a little closer to examine the objects.

"The Evil Queen's Magic Mirror and Maleficent's spellbook," Grumpy says, crossing his arms as if satisfied with the evidence.

"Both of which were reported stolen from the headmistress' vault," the head guard says.

"Along with this…" the fairy of the group says, placing the hoodie on the desk too. "The same hoodie that was worn by the culprit on the security tapes."

"But that's an Auradon hoodie," Ben speaks up. "Many students on campus have it. Mal doesn't own one anyway."

Mal feels slight pride that Ben is standing up for her, trying to help her, but she knew his trust is wavering ever so slightly with the evidence being presented.

"Then why was it in her bag?!" Grumpy demands.

"Let's hear her side of the story first," Belle says, trying to be reasonable instead of just accusing Mal of anything and everything.

"Mal," Ben tells her. "What happened?"

She swallows a large lump in her throat before speaking.

"I haven't done any of this," she proclaims immediately.

"That's what all criminals say," Grumpy snaps.

"Don't talk to her like that!" Ben barks. "Mal is not a criminal! She is my girlfriend, a lady of the court, and a respected member of Auradon. And as king, I demand that you treat her with respect!"

This outburst silences the angry dwarf for a few moments.

"Sins of the mother to sins of the daughter," the dwarf mutters, but this time King Beast glares at the man, letting out an animalistic snarl to silence his colleague.

"It's okay, go on Mal," Ben says quietly.

"I didn't do any of this. When I gave my spellbook to Fairy Godmother, I meant for it to go to the museum. I did not expect for it to appear in my locker, along with Evie's mirror."

"So, it just magically showed up there?" Grumpy snorts.

Mal's eyes flicker green for a moment before she swallows her anger. She keeps her chin up.

"No, but it may as well have. I don't know how they got there, like everyone's locker, it had a lock with a combination that only I knew. I didn't break into the vault because I have an alibi for the night of the break-in. I was in my room, with my roommate, I never left the room. You can ask her yourself."

"We will worry about that after," Fairy Godmother says.

"What about the vandalism then? Spray paint is easily accessible to all students and not to mention that all the tags were mottos from the Isle of the Lost. Plus, only someone with wings could reach the height that they were painted on… someone who could turn into a dragon. And, if I'm not mistaken, Mal was staying late, unsupervised to clean up the mess she made in the chemistry lab…"

Mal opens her mouth to protest. Yes, it would appear to anyone that she could have spray painted the school, but she didn't.

"That wasn't me. I won't lie that I was at the school late, but I was cleaning until I heard a voice. Eventually, I recognized it.

"And whose voice was it?" Fairy Godmother asks.

"Uma's."

"Uma's?"

"Yes, the daughter of Ursula," Ben chimes in. "The one who took me prisoner in exchange for the wand, the one who used magic to put a love spell on me and the one who nearly destroyed the boat and the cotillion, which would have happened if Mal had not stepped in."

The king gives her a smile, and Mal does the same, very weakly. He puts his hand on her shoulder.

"Actually, it was you who stopped the violence from escalating," Fairy Godmother points out.

"But only because I didn't want anyone to get hurt. Mal was selflessly trying to protect us," Ben counters.

"By almost burning us to a crisp," Grumpy mutters.

Mal clenches her fists, trying to avoid lashing out, knowing that it would not help her case.

"Uma has been behind everything," the purple-haired teen says firmly. "I followed her voice and I found out that she'd broken into my locker, which would explain how the mirror and book got in there. And just tonight, I saw her and her crewmates come through the Isle barrier."

"That's impossible," the dwarf snorts.

King Adam nods in agreement. "No one can just come through the enchanted barrier like that."

"But It's true, I saw it. She used magic."

"How?" the fairy asks skeptically. "How did you see this?"

"T-Through the mirror…"

"HA!" Grumpy smirks, feeling as if he's got Mal in some sort of trap. The teen grasps the arms of the chair angrily, trying to remain calm.

"But I saw her use some sort of potion, creating a green portal, using the ingredients that **_she_** stole from the vault. She fed into its power and allowed a ship, _The Jolly Roger_ to come through with her crew. They could be on their way here as we speak."

"But magic does not work on the Isle," Belle says skeptically.

"Uma found some way around it. She used the water to create a large green whirlpool that went under the barrier and allowed her ship to come through."

"A likely story," Grumpy says again. "And what about the vandalism?"

"She inherited her mother's ability to become an octopus, a very large one that could reach up very high," Ben steps in, believing that he's helping clear up Mal's supposed guilt.

"She's been playing everyone this whole time, trying to frame me by planting things in my locker and have me take the fall for it," Mal says, with more confidence.

"And why would she break into your locker twice?" Belle asks. "The objects went missing several days before the vandalism and if Uma was there the other night, why would she go back?"

"She stole a book from me."

"What book?"

"This one?" the guard asks, pulling out an all too familiar book that both Mal and Ben had been reading. " _Travel Guide to Different Realms and Universes?_ "

"Mal's had that for a few weeks now," Ben explains. "We've been reading it together."

Fairy Godmother takes the book from the guard and reads the title again. She then glares at the book and then Mal, causing the daughter of Maleficent's face to drain of colour.

"So, you were aware that she had this?" Fairy Godmother says.

"Absolutely," the king nods.

"And are you aware that this book is from the restricted section of the library where only royalty and staff are allowed to be? One of the two that have been missing for several weeks now?"

Ben's eyes go wide in shock. He looks down at Mal, expecting her to deny it, call it out as another ridiculous accusation, but she merely looks at him, tears coming back into her eyes. His beautiful hazel eyes now portray the look of betrayal and confusion. He swallows and takes a step back.

"That can't be true… Mal… Mal wouldn't do that… she…"

The tears finally fall from her green eyes and she grasps her hands together, trying to quell the shaking in her body. Her face pleads with her boyfriend to understand.

Ben shakes his head violently. "There's no way she did it…"

"Easy enough for a thief," Grumpy says.

"I'M NOT A THIEF!" Mal barks, standing up defiantly. She's getting sick and tired of the dwarf's constant accusations and insults. Without thinking, she forces her hand outward and throws the cranky man against the bookcase behind Fairy Godmother's desk.

"Mal! Stop it!" Ben says, grabbing her arms before she can do any more damage. She's crying and struggling in his arms. Belle and Adam, as well as the guards, go and help the dwarf to his feet. Their voices overlap in tones of shock and concern for their fellow brethren. Between Mal's sobs and the arising commotion, the room has become chaos. Fairy Godmother stares angrily at the villain child, shocked and very disappointed at the young sorceress' use of magic.

"That kid is dangerous, she ought to be locked up!" Grumpy demands.

Mal continues to cry. Ben tries to hold onto her, but she's about to collapse onto the floor in defeat. She wants to lash out again at the comment, but it all just seems to be collapsing in on her, she has not more strength left inside to fight back. It feels as if someone is stomping on her heart, over and over again. The pain and anger she feels inside of her was like some kind of fire, a fire that is destructive and raging within her body. It wreaks havoc on her strength, confidence, and hope of getting out of this situation. Her muscles ache heavily as Ben tries to hold onto her. She can feel that his grip is shaky, no doubt that he is feeling weak and betrayed as well. She had lied to him and the guilt is tearing her apart. She continues to cry, drowning in sadness. Her whole world is crumbling with every passing second… she can't believe it, but Uma won, she'd done exactly what she'd set out to do, destroy her rival's life.

"Please take Grumpy to the infirmary to see if he requires any medical attention," Fairy Godmother says, trying to keep a level head during the commotion.

Several guards escort the dwarf out, while several others stand ready to guard the king and queen against any imminent danger. Mal is on her knees, still crying, looking up at the adults in the room, knowing that her fate is sealed. There was no turning back from what she'd done. She'd shown them her inner villain, and they were ready to punish her.

 _ **Please Review.**_


	18. Chapter 17: The Pain of a Broken Heart

Chapter 17: The Pain of a Broken Heart

Ben holds Mal against his chest, trying to comfort her. He knows she didn't mean to hurt anyone, but her anger sometimes causes her to get carried away. While he was upset about her lying to him again, he knows he must be there for her, in her time of need.

Fairy Godmother, King Adam, and Queen Belle stand behind the desk, none of them look particularly pleased by what has transpired, but there is some sympathy felt for the girl from the Isle.

"I'm… sorry," Mal weeps. "I'm so sorry."

"We know you are Mal," Fairy Godmother says firmly. "We understand that it is hard for you to leave your old habits behind."

"What do you mean?" Mal asks, wiping tears from her eyes. She tries to embrace the feeling of Ben's arms around her, she doesn't want him to let go.

"We understand it is hard for you to control your magic and use it for your own devices."

"Own devices?" she asks.

"Stealing, vandalism…"

"WHAT?!" the daughter of Maleficent gasps, standing up so abruptly that her boyfriend loses his grip on her. "After all this, you still think I did this?!" She can hardly believe her ears.

"The evidence is pointing to it," Fairy Godmother says.

"WHAT EVIDENCE?! I didn't steal back my spellbook or anything else, I didn't vandalize the school…"

"But you did take a restricted book from the library, kept and used objects that were forbidden on school grounds, and attacked a member of the faculty."

"I didn't mean to," Mal says, trying to keep her anger in check, however, her eyes were illuminating the all too familiar green again.

"Regardless," the headmistress says firmly. "You have broken several rules that can result in suspension and possible expulsion."

"EXPULSION!" Mal gasps. She backs away from the desk, her mind a whirlwind of emotions. She cannot believe that this is happening to her. She made a few bad decisions, but it should not jeopardize her entire future! Words become caught in her throat and she feels like she's choking, her entire body seizes up in panic and anger. "No… please you can't…"

"I must do what is necessary for the good students of Auradon… and until we investigate your claim of Uma's contributions to this mess, we must reduce all the risks…"

"I'm not a risk!" she cries.

However, Mal's eyes light up again, contradicting her statement and almost immediately she can feel that she wants to lash out. It takes most of her strength to remain composed with her powers. However, her eyes begin to fill with confused tears again. Ben tries to approach her for another hug, but she rebuffs him.

"Fine, expel me! Then you can fight Uma on your own but don't come asking me for help when you're in a life or death situation!" she snarls under her breath.

"Until further notice, Mal is suspended from Auradon Preparatory School."

Words fail to leave the girl's mouth, she just gasps, as if air is trying to leave her lungs.

"However, any kind of suspension or expulsion can only be finalized by decree of the king."

Ben's eyes go wide in horror. Of course, he wouldn't get out of this, he had to be there for Mal when she needs him most. He looks at her, equally horrified by this declaration.

"I…I can't suspend Mal…" he manages to choke out. "She's my girlfriend and I love her, I can't do this to her."

There is a small moment of comfort felt between the couple, despite the tension that was slowly building within themselves; Mal of confusion and rage, Ben with sadness.

"Son," King Beast says, giving his son a firm look. "I cannot tell you what to do in this situation. I cannot be the one to make the decision either considering you are now the rightful King of Auradon. You must do what is right for your people and sometimes…" the king and queen both look sadly at Mal. "That means putting your people before your feelings."

"NO!" Ben shouts. "I won't do it. I don't care whether I'm the king or not! My heart and my feelings for Mal come first always!"

"I'm afraid emotions have little to do with important decisions, including the safety of your fellow peers."

"I can't!" Ben says, tears now filling his eyes. "I can't…"

"You must do what is good for the people…" Fairy Godmother says. "But I cannot do anything in terms of an investigation until the threat has been taken care of."

 ** _Threat?!_** Is that what they were seeing her as? Mal clenches her fists together in anger. _I'll show you a threat_ … She stops realizing what's happening. Her dark side, her Isle side is coming back, the evil inherited from her mother. Is she really reverting to her old ways? She can't attack the King, Queen, or headmistress, it would get her expelled and most likely banished from Auradon and sent back to the Isle. Ben would never forgive her for hurting his parents and he would surely turn his back on her if she did. While she was torn for the moment, fear was creeping into her soul, she's afraid of what his answer will be. She must be a good person, a hero and keep her anger in check. She had a good life here, something that was slowly being ruined by Uma and her own bad choices. She knew her future here was now in question, that didn't matter as long as she had a future with Ben…

Ben's mind is a tornado all its own. His heart feels like it's being crushed into dust. His body is being pulled in two different directions, almost to the point that he might be torn in half. He needs to be on Mal's side, otherwise, he'll lose her for good… But if he follows his heart, he'll let his kingdom down and if he doesn't do anything, the investigation would be stalled and Mal's claims would not be investigated any further. He felt like the weight of the world was bearing down on his shoulders and he was crumbling to the ground. Tears burn his eyes, this was the worst situation he's ever been put in. He looks at his parents and then he turns to Mal…

With the heaviest heart imaginable, Ben looks at his girlfriend. "U-Until further notice, Mal is to be suspended from Auradon Prep."

Tears begin pouring from Mal's eyes, which are glowing, but a heavy green, not something that has been seen before. Her heart shatters into a million pieces and unbearable pain surges through her entire body. Some sort of wave of power echoes through the office, causing everything to shake for a moment like an earthquake tremor.

"Mal…" Ben says, trying to explain that it would only be temporary until they found Uma, but she doesn't want to hear it any longer.

"I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!" she screams.

She angrily removes the ring he'd given her and tosses it at his feet. She then runs from the room, her tears raining down like a waterfall. The feeling inside of her is agonizing, this is what it was like to have a broken heart. She just wanted to die to end the pain inside of her.

Ben leans down and picks up the ring. Tears are now going down his face, his heart also breaking into many pieces.

His father comes up to him and puts his hand on his shoulder. "You did what you had to do for the kingdom."

"Screw the kingdom!" Ben barks angrily, all his emotions coming to the surface. He shrugs off his father's hand and turns to the adults that put him in this situation. "It's caused me nothing but trouble and just now it made me lose my only happiness! She'll never forgive me now and it's all because I'm king. I hate it and I want to quit! But as your king, I order you to find the real culprit so Mal can come back!" The last few of his words come out in a beastly growl, his father's inner animal instincts that had been passed down were coming to the surface. He then storms from the room, in his own bout of anger and sadness. He wants to follow Mal, go and beg for her forgiveness, but he knew it wouldn't make a difference. She hated him now, their true love was now just a memory, a broken dream stomped on by the kingdom of Auradon. He turns and goes to his own office to think. His door slams, which echoes through the dark and empty school.

"He didn't mean any of that," Queen Belle says calmly. She had tears in her own eyes, devastated by watching her son's heart be broken in such a terrible way. King Adam hands his wife a handkerchief, which she dabs her eyes with. Fairy Godmother looks equally guilty, her hand resting on her chin. She knew she had been harsh on both teenagers, but she had to do what was right, not just for the students, but for everyone. However, now she was questioning her decision. "He's just hurt…"

"We did pressure him into an impossible situation," King Beast admits, looking at his wife with great sadness. He regrets abdicating the throne to Ben, so he could take over, it just seemed to endanger his son and make his life miserable.

However, he did not realize how true this thought was about to become.

…

Mal storms into her shared room with Evie, where her roommate and Dizzy are sketching out some new designs for an upcoming campus party. However, when they see Mal, Evie drops her things. She sees her friends red eyes, which glowed a very dark green, something she had never seen before. She gasps when she sees the tears stains on her bestie's cheeks. Dizzy looks frightened and equally concerned. Before either friend can say anything, more tears fall down the daughter of Maleficent's face and she runs into the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

"Mal…" Evie says, going to the door and knocking on it. "Mal what happened? Mal please…"

"What happened?" Dizzy asks.

"I don't know Diz, but I think it had something to do with Ben…"

 ** _Please Review, it really helps me out._**


	19. Chapter 18: Freedom

Chapter 18: Freedom

Harry Hook hangs from one the higher parts of the mast, breathing in the fresh salty air. It felt amazing to finally be free from the Isle, sail the open waters like his father had once done. Stealing what he wanted, seducing every girl he could find, and strike fear into the hearts of all those who opposed him. He gazes out at the horizon, looking up at the star-filled sky, something he'd never seen before since the Isle was always covered in dark clouds. He'd been told tales by his father and many other pirates how one could navigate the stars, and now thanks to their captain, he'd be able to put those tales to use.

"Can't get enough of it huh?" Uma smirks, proudly donning her pirate hat and cutlass again.

"My home is the sea and it will forever be," the son of Captain Hook grins. He grips his hook and slides down the ropes onto deck level.

"The air feels fresher out here," Gil says. "Even though it's, you know air."

"Sometimes it still surprises me what it's like to be free," Uma grins.

"Aye, you realized that you haven't lived until you've seen the world outside the homestead," Harry agrees.

"So, what do we do now captain?" One of the pirates at the helm of the ship asks.

"Shall we see where the wind takes us?" Harry asks. "Find some right pretty places to rob?"

"I like your thinking Harry, but you're thinking too small?"

"Small?" Gil asks. "Then what is big to you?"

"I'm thinking taking over Auradon," the daughter of Ursula smiles widely.

"That is a big thought," Gil ponders to himself.

"That would be a right nice thing to do Love, but how will we do that?" Harry asks. "You've told us many a time that everything is guarded heavily, fairies with magic and such. Plus with back stabbin' Mal on the side of good, she's hard to beat."

"Not if we have the right tools," Uma says. "Besides, I doubt Mal will be willing to fight for the side of good much longer."

"What have you done Fish Bait?" Harry grins from ear to ear.

"Let's just say everyone will be thinking that Mal hasn't changed at all…"

"So, what's the plan mate?" Gil asks.

"I liked what I did with the portal and potions… it felt amazing… I'm thinking we make another batch and this time we make it even bigger."

"How can we do that?" one of the pirates asks. "Even with your great power Captain, there are limits to the magic you possess."

"That is true," she ponders the thought.

"Why would we want to make it bigger?" the son of Gaston wonders aloud.

"You'll see," Uma smiles happily. "But first we need to get the right leverage."

 _A/N: What do you think Uma's plan is? Sorry if this chapter is shorter._


	20. Chapter 19: Fight for Love

Chapter 19: Fight for Love

"Mal…" Evie says, knocking on the bathroom door. "Mal please open the door."

"GO AWAY!" the daughter of Maleficent screams.

"Just open the door so we can talk."

"I don't want to talk to anyone right now!"

"Please Mal…"

"I SAID GO AWAY!" She screams even louder. Evie sees a flash of green underneath the door and knows better than to press the issue any further.

Evie sighs having given the last attempt before backing away. By then, Jay, Carlos, Jane, Doug, and Dude had all shown up to the girls' room to try and make sense of the situation. Doug opens his arms to allow his girlfriend into them. She collapses against her boyfriend's chest and begins to cry quietly to herself. It hurt to see her best friend in so much pain. She just wanted to be the shoulder for Mal to cry on, but the daughter of Maleficent had shut her out; so now Doug was that shoulder for her.

"It's okay," Doug says comfortingly, rubbing her back, which he knew she liked when she was sad.

"Is it really?" Jay asks pessimistically, sitting in reverse in Mal's desk chair with his chin resting on the back.

Carlos slugs his best friend in the shoulder before offering his own arms to Dizzy, who was spooked tremendously by all the relationship drama. Obviously, the youngest of the group had yet to experience the trials and tribulations that one experiences with any relationship. If the VKs were honest, relationships were a lot worse than starving to death or battling pirates on a ship. Nothing ever seemed easy for anyone when fighting with someone you love.

"I've never seen Mal this angry," Evie whimpers. "She's never been like this before."

"Well, the last time she and Ben fought, she took off to Isle, didn't she?" Jane asks, quietly. She sits on Mal's bed with Dude in her lap as she scratched him behind the ears.

"She did, but even then, she wasn't completely angry, just sad and she tried to hide her feelings more than anything," Carlos says.

"Something must've really happened to really send her off the deep-end," Jay agrees

Jane checks her phone and realizes her mother had sent her a message. She reads it and sheds some tears.

"Something did happen…" the daughter of the Fairy Godmother says quietly.

"What?" Carlos asks.

"Mal's been suspended from Auradon."

Everyone in the room gasps.

"Are you serious?" Doug questions.

"My mom just sent me a message saying that she'd be home late because she has to fill out the paperwork for a suspension… so I assume that it was Mal."

"But why?" Dizzy asks. "What did she do wrong?"

"Do they think she's the one who stole all the chemistry stuff and vandalized the school?" Jay asks.

"It looks that way," Jane sighs heavily.

"That would make her sad, but not like this. The only time she's ever cried this hard is when she broke up with Ben the first time," Evie mentions.

"So, what happened with Ben that would make her act this way?" Jay asks.

"Well, according to the Auradon Student Handbook," Jane explains. "A suspension and expulsion can only be officially enacted by the ruling king or queen at the time…"

"So that means…" Dizzy gasps.

"Ben had to suspend her himself" Carlos finishes, his eyes wide in shock.

"Pouring salt on the wound," Jay agrees, grimacing for his friend.

"Ouch," Dude says.

"Poor Mal," Jane murmurs sadly. Carlos goes over and puts his arm around his girlfriend as she begins to cry a little bit. "Maybe I can talk to my mom, have her change her mind."

"Even if you could," Doug says. "It wouldn't help Mal and Ben."

The friends sit in silence for a long time, the only sounds were Mal's strangled and agonizing sobs coming from the bathroom. All eyes turn towards their friend… their leader. It's hard to see someone you care about suffer like this and shut everyone out. They want to give her comfort and support, but she wants nothing to do with any of them.

"But they can't stay mad at each other forever, right?" Dizzy asks. "They're true love, aren't they?"

"True Love, rare as it may be, is hard to find and even harder to fix after the love and trust are wrecked." Jane sighs.

"And it can't repair a broken heart that easily," Evie agrees.

Mal's best friend then wipes away the last of her tears, collects herself as best she can and stands up straight. She breaks from Doug's arms and turns towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Carlos asks.

"To find Ben,"

"Evie, don't…" Doug begins. "Don't get in the middle of it."

"I have to do something," the daughter of the Evil Queen says. "Ben and Mal have been through too much to just give up like this."

"But Evie…" Carlos begins.

"I don't care if it's not my relationship, but Mal is too weak to fight for what she deserves right now and sometimes, every warrior needs a backup weapon when they are wounded."

"This is love, not war," Jane points out.

"Is there ever really a difference?" she inquires. "I'll just talk to him and see if he needs a shoulder to cry on or give him the boost he requires to fight for their love. True love does not come easily to many people and it should be fought for until the bitter end."

"Everything always comes to a bitter end," Jay mutters as Evie exits the room before anyone could say anything else.

"I just hope she knows what she's doing," Doug says nervously.

"She's Evie," Dizzy says positively. "She can do anything."

 _A/N: Evie to the rescue! Please Review and a special shout out to Northern queen for her review._


	21. Chapter 20: Caught in the Dark

Chapter 20: Caught in the Dark

With some reluctance, Evie stands outside the door of Ben's office. How many times has she been here in the last year trying to keep the couple together? It was like she is their relationship therapist or their peacekeeper, trying to resume the calm after the storm. Why couldn't true love couples just be happy? She and Doug may not be true love, but they are certainly happy. Sure, they had their fights, but what relationship didn't? Nothing was ever perfect, but if it was easy for her and her boyfriend to experience happy bliss, why couldn't it be the same way for her best friend? She could understand that Ben being royalty and all the responsibilities that came with it made things more complicated, but it seemed no matter how hard Ben and Mal tried, they just couldn't win. Opposites did not seem to attract, the universe was working against them.

She thinks over in her head what she's going to say and puts a stray blue lock of hair behind her ear. Her stomach turns several times, one side of her saying to let the fight run its course and the other side just wants to help. With the predicament her best friend was in, Mal needed Ben more than ever. He's the only one she would ever talk to if she was this upset. The entire office area is eerily quiet considering it's likely the middle of the night; even Fairy Godmother's office is dark. But if Ben was anywhere to do some thinking, it'd be here or the place by the Enchanted Lake, although trying to get there in the dark was next to impossible.

Evie sucks in a deep breath and knocks on the door.

"Ben?" she asks.

There's no reply. Typical if someone was hurting from a break-up, they'd probably wouldn't respond the first time.

"Ben, it's Evie."

Nothing.

"Ben, I just want to talk to you for a second and then I'll leave you alone I promise."

Still nothing.

 _Okay, that is just weird_ , Evie thinks to herself. _Ignoring me the first time is normal but_ …

"Ben are you okay?"

Nothing but silence.

Something in the back of Evie's mind told her something wasn't right.

"Ben, I'm coming in," she announces so he wouldn't be mad at her for barging in.

She jiggles the knob several times until it finally opens with a low sounding creak. The sound sends a shiver up her spine.

To her surprise, the office is empty and completely dark. No wonder he didn't answer, he's probably gone home for the…

Something stops the daughter of the Evil Queen from leaving; another chill runs up her spine and it's not from unease or anxiety. The room is cold… extremely cold, almost to the point where she can see her breath. Evie rubs her hands up and down her arms to keep them warm. There is a strong breeze rushing through the room and it means something is very wrong. She stumbles around the office, trying to remember where the light switch was. When she turns it on, Evie's heart drops into her stomach and a gasp is caught in her throat.

The entire office is an absolute wreck. Books have been thrown from their shelves, ornaments have fallen or have been deliberately smashed against the wall. The brick fireplace on one side of the wall has been scratched up as if by something made of metal and the bricks are stained. The portrait of Ben as King and another of his parents have been vandalized with a black marker and spray paint. The leather chairs he had have been turned over and turned inside out. The Auradon flag that stood in his office is now torn to shreds. And finally, papers are strewn about, blowing in the wind coming from the gigantic hole where Ben's window used to be. Only a select few sharp shards of glass are still in the pane. But worst of all… Ben was gone.

"Ben?!" Evie calls, her heart pounding against her chest. She's reluctant to get any closer, but she knows she needs to. With slow careful steps, she goes towards the desk. Everything that had been on the heavy desk has been thrown to the floor, including a picture the king had of him and Mal together. This could have however been from Ben's own pent-up anger over their break up. She notices scuff marks on the floor and a sword by the window. She nearly vomits when she sees droplets of blood as well. Irrevocably, she sees a scrap of blue cloth stuck to a piece of glass. She pulls it out, knowing it was Ben's.

Evie manages a small sound, a whimper that came from the back of her throat. She stares outward, the wind of the night blowing her hair into her face, mimicking the chaos she felt inside of herself. The trees outside move as if in rhythm, reaching forward, encouraging the darkness to swallow her whole. While growing up on the Isle had made her strong, the blue-haired teenager still had personal fears... most of all the fear of darkness, the void of the unknown. The light of the room also cast sharp shadows around her that seemed to scratch against her body, trying to grab the daughter of the Evil Queen. Her heart threatens to crack her ribcage in anxiety and her hands shake erratically dreaded terror.

She then looks up and gasps in horror.

There's a piece of paper stuck to the wood of the window pane… But it's not the paper itself that scares her, making the VK shake with fear, nor is it the all too familiar handwriting and logo scratched onto the front of it… It's what the paper is stuck to the wall with...

It's stuck to the wood with a shiny metal hook.

 _A/N: Dun, dun, DUN! Please Review._


	22. Chapter 21: Support Before Danger

Chapter 21: Support Before Danger

After what felt like an eternity, Mal emerges from the bathroom to be met with the concerned expressions of her friends. Her eyes are bloodshot from crying and are glowing a rather dark green colour, indicating the heaviness of her mood. She wants to tell them to go away, but she knows that right now… she needs her friends more than anything. None of them say a thing, but she can feel their sympathy. Carlos gets up from the bed he was sitting on. He goes over and offers his arms to her. Without a second thought, Mal embraces her friend tightly. Slowly, the others get up and join the growing hug, to provide their friend with the support she desperately needs. They all stand, grouped together with their arms linked as if providing a way for Mal to remain standing on her feet.

Tears slide from her eyes again, happy to have the comfort, but still unbelievably devastated at what has happened. She thought she loved Ben and that he loved her. Their love had survived even the most desperate of circumstances, even managing to break a love spell, indicating true love, but… if this was true love, why was it so hard to stay together? They were so different, and it felt as though the universe wanted to keep them apart; something always came up that wrecked their feelings for one another. Whether it was lying or ultimately, the kingdom of Auradon itself… the world is tearing them in different directions. The daughter of Maleficent partially wants to go anywhere else, someplace where she wouldn't have these problems, where there was no kingdom, no Uma, no Isle, no pressures from teachers and most of all, no past that would come back to haunt her. No past, just a future. A happy future.

"It's okay Mal," Carlos whispers. He knew that nothing about this is okay, but he knew that all Mal needed right now is support, full support from those who love her; nothing more, nothing less to help mend her broken heart.

"We're here for you," Jay adds.

"Thank you," Mal sniffs. She is the first to break from the group hug. She looks at her friends earnestly and forces a weak smile on her face. The VKs and Auradon kids could still see the faint dull glow of her green eyes, indicating that she was having a hard time controlling her powers since they were heavily linked to her emotions. "Thank you, guys, … I couldn't ask for better friends even if I tried."

She pauses when she realizes her best friend/sister is missing. "Where's Evie?"

"She… uh… went out for a little air. Seeing you hurt like that made her upset as well and she needed a breather too. She'll be back soon," Doug lies, thinking quickly. All the others in the group knew that if Mal found out Evie was trying to coax her and Ben into talking again, she'll just get mad and turn away from them, further isolating herself and leaving her even more heartbroken.

"I feel so bad for yelling at her," the purple-haired teen admits.

"Don't be," Jay says sympathetically. "She understands that you're hurt, and you didn't mean anything that you might've said. Even sisters get into fights sometimes."

Mal gives another weak smile as Dizzy wraps her arms around her friend very tightly. While the daughter of Drizella was obviously a hugger, the daughter of Maleficent appreciated the support given by everyone, not just the youngest VK. Once she and Dizzy break apart, Mal goes to her closet, she digs through until she finds an all too familiar duffle bag. She then opens the chest of drawers on her side of the room and begins to stuff clothes into it.

"Mal what are you doing?" Carlos asks, horrified.

"Packing, isn't it obvious?"

"Why are you packing?" Dizzy asks. She rushes over and attempts to grab the bag from her friend. She and Mal get into a sort of tug-of-war over the bag until Mal pulls it out of the VK's grasp.

"Because I'm probably going to be expelled soon," the brokenhearted girl says.

"You've been suspended, not expelled," Jay says. "There is a difference."

Mal tries to shove a couple purple outfits into her bag, but the minute she turns to grab more things, Dizzy takes the clothes out of the bag and puts them on Evie's bed, out of her friend's reach.

"I don't think you understand the concept of packing," Mal says, weakly smiling at Dizzy's attempt to keep her at Auradon. "It's going to happen guys. If they can't prove that Uma and her crew are behind all of this… I'm probably going to be expelled and I'll have to go home. Besides…" She swallows a large lump in her throat. "Ben probably won't want me in the kingdom now that we've broken up."

"You know he wouldn't do that," Jane says, she pulls out her phone, ready to call her mother. "Please Mal, just let me talk to my mom and tell her that this is just a big mistake I…"

"Thank you…Jane," Mal says, putting her hands on the screen of Jane's phone to stop her. "I appreciate the help, but I don't want to get anyone else in trouble."

"If it is Uma, then we have to do something to expose the truth," Jay says with determination.

"You can start with the smell on the hoodie," Dude says, from atop of Evie's bed. The entire group looks at the talking animal in confusion.

"What hoodie?" Dizzy asks.

"What do you mean?" Carlos asks.

"The hoodie that was in Mal's locker, it stunk of seawater and shrimp, definitely not the usual cinnamon and wilting petunias perfume that Mal usually wears…"

"Shrimpy…" the purple-haired teen hisses, hating to have to say the nickname she'd given her arch-rival all those years ago. Her eyes light up the typical green that comes with her anger.

"Yeah, I tried to tell you guys about it, but you wouldn't listen to me."

"Why didn't you try telling me at another time?" the son of Cruella De Vil asks, angry that his dog left out this important piece of information.

"You were all so caught up in your own problems that no one listens to the talking dog who has a superior sense of smell and obviously paid more attention to the evidence."

"Oh… I want to make her pay…" Mal grinds her teeth in anger.

Suddenly, Evie bursts into the room, panting and not even watching where she's going. She nearly runs headlong into Doug's chest, but stops, trying to gather herself. She looks flustered and confused, several tears streaming down her face.

"Whoa Evie, where's the fire?" Jay asks.

"…Ben…Uma… Harry… gone" she pants.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down," Doug says, putting his arm around her shoulders. "Take a deep breath."

Evie turns to her best friend. Mal sees the distress on her friend's face and she's afraid that this was from the yelling earlier, but then she can tell that the daughter of the Evil Queen is spooked, not sad.

"What's going on Evie?" Carlos asks.

With a shaking hand, Evie holds up the note scratched out on a frail piece of parchment paper before handing it to Mal. The two friends lock eyes for a moment, fear now filling Mal's stomach as well.

Evie then holds up the metal hook and the entire room goes deathly quiet, not all of them understood the meaning but they knew that it was not a good thing.

Mal looks down at the note, a new lump forms in her throat, almost afraid to see what the message was inside...

 _ **Please Review. Special thanks to Northern Queen and abigailmay2005**_


	23. Chapter 22: How Auradon Fights

Chapter 22: How Auradon Fights

 ** _Dear Princess, Mal,_**

Mal grinds her teeth together and her eyes glow a very angry green. She holds the note tightly in her grasp, crumpling it almost to the point that the parchment would rip into multiple pieces. She knows who wrote this note and 'they' decided to open the letter with a mocking statement of her former status within the kingdom of Auradon, which was on the rocks thanks to Uma. She sucks in a deep breath and keeps reading the note.

 ** _I hope you've been getting all the caviar and spa treatments that you can handle because that is about to end. I wonder if you've figured out who's been causing a little chaos around this prissy prep school. Life in this kingdom is so boring and it was so much fun to shake things up and watch you take the fall. After our near run-in a couple of nights ago, I decided to show Auradon who you really are and who you've always been._**

 ** _You can get mad at me all you want, but you know it's the truth. Evil is born not made and it will always stay that way. Like I said before, you can stick a tiara on a villain, but you'll always be a villain. The only difference is that I've fully embraced who I am and have decided to flaunt it. You know my name and what it means._**

 ** _I can't say that I haven't enjoyed the freedom of the open waters and now, my crew is too. We plan to improve our lives by 100%, but we must take care of a few things first before we set sail. It's been a little while since we've talked, and I think it's time that we have a little reunion, only this time on your turf, instead of mine. I figured Ben deserved a front row seat for him seeing who you truly are and that's why he's been given early admission. He's not dead… yet… If that makes you feel any better. But it won't stay that way for much longer._**

 ** _You might be thinking that I want Fairy Godmother's magic wand again and that I want to trade it for Ben, but I don't. Your precious king is just the leverage I need to get you here. You and I need to settle this once and for all, find out who the Queen of the Isle truly is. If you think you can beat me, you've got another thing coming and this time Beasty boy won't be there to stop the fighting. You knew that this has been a long time coming, the ultimate showdown and this time, only one of us is coming out alive._**

 ** _Meet me on the beach in an hour where we can finally see if you can answer this question;_**

 ** _What's my name?_**

 ** _If you tell any teachers or other adults, then Ben won't live to see the sunrise._**

 ** _I know you're itching for some excitement, bring it on._**

 ** _Uma_**

 ** _P.S._**

 ** _Gil and Harry say hi to you and the other loser VK's_**

The note becomes a crumpled ball as the daughter of Maleficent's fist squeezes it in her grasp. Her eyes are now like two green beacons of light as she becomes more and more enraged. She lets out an animalistic snarl. Before, she had been fighting back tears of anger and sadness, but now her rage is boiling over. The ground beneath her begins to shake violently with her inner evil coming out once again. It was like déjà vu for her. The last time she and Ben had broken up, he'd come to the Isle and been captured by Uma and her crew. Now they'd broken up again and the pattern is repeating, only this time Mal felt that there is more to it. Uma always wanted something more, there was always a catch to her plans or deals; like mother, like daughter. She couldn't figure out what it is, but tears are streaming down her face as she pants in anger.

Everyone in the room is deathly afraid of what will happen next; those who had seen what happened on the Cotillion cruise ship knew what this reaction likely meant. They take several steps back, Jay putting himself in front of Dizzy to protect her, Carlos pulling Jane and Dude close to him so he can protect them, and Doug has his hand on his girlfriend's shoulder to pull her away from the raging dragon-girl. But Evie shrugs off his grasp. The daughter of the Evil Queen realizes what was going to happen and she grabs her friend's shoulders tightly, having no regard for her own safety.

"Mal, listen to me…" she says in an eerily soothing voice. "You have to control your anger. You have to calm down. The only way to get Ben back is come up with a plan."

The purple-haired teen doesn't respond, but she keeps breathing heavily. She has the urge to spread her dragon wings and take out Uma in a ball of fire. She should have done it at the Cotillion, but Ben stopped it. A stupid move on his part in retrospect.

"Mal, we're going to do this together, you don't have to fight her alone."

Evie continues to hold her best friend's shoulders, refusing to let go and watch her sister do something that she will regret. She's trying to shake some sense into Mal, wake her from the angry trance she's in.

"Mal… look at me…. LOOK AT ME!" she orders, using her inner "evil queen" genes to finally have her friend lock eyes with her. "We're going to do this together. We're going to get Ben back, but as a team."

Mal sucks in another deep breath, allowing her magic to come under control again. She looks into Evie's brown eyes, seeing the determination in them, but the daughter of Maleficent knows she cannot ask her friends to put themselves in danger like this. "NO...You… can't do that. You can't risk your lives. This is between Uma and me like it was always meant to be."

"No way," Carlos says, going over to be next to Evie. "I've said it before and I'm going to say it again. We've been through a lot together and we're not stopping that now. We're your family and we're always going to be your family. Your fight is our fight…"

"Right," Jay nods, going to join his friends. "We're a team and we have each other's back. When the captain becomes tired, he has his army to watch his back."

They all look at him with slight confusion.

"Or… something along those lines," Jay says, knowing he's not a good motivational speaker.

He grabs Mal's hand and holds it in front of them. Carlos lays his on top of theirs and Evie joins in too.

"Losing is not an option," Evie says firmly. "Because we're rotten…"

"To the core," Mal finishes, giving a weak smile.

Dizzy joins the huddle putting her hand in, followed by Doug and Jane.

"We do this as a team…" Doug agrees. "As friends."

"No, there is no way you're getting involved in this," Evie says, taking her hand out of the group. "You too Diz."

"Jane, no…" Carlos says, grabbing her hand and pulling her away from the team huddle.

"I have magic, I can help you."

"I can't risk it," the son of Cruella De Vil says firmly. "It's too dangerous."

"NO!" Jane says, almost angrily. Everyone is surprised by the sudden change in sweet Jane's personality. She glares at all of them, finally putting her foot down. "I'm tired of people always treating me like I'm made of glass and if I'm touched, that I'll break. Just because my mother's the headmistress doesn't mean I need to be pushed to the side. I've let people do that to me all my life and I'm sick of it! I'm letting my voice be heard. Mal is just as much my friend as she is yours and if we're fighting for Auradon and Ben, we're doing it together."

Carlos is taken aback by his girlfriend's words and everyone else is too. All of a sudden, the shy, sweet Jane has given way to someone none of them can recognize; she's angry and determined, not taking no for an answer. Gone from timid, young fairy to warrior in a single heartbeat. And her boyfriend finds it rather attractive. He smiles at her, letting her know he's on her side now. He knows he couldn't convince her otherwise.

"Okay…" he says gently and allows Jane to put her hand in the huddle again.

Evie turns to deal with her boyfriend. "Doug, I can't ask you to fight with us."

"You didn't and I won't ask, but like Jane, Auradon is my home and I will protect it, no matter what…" the son of Dopey bites his lip, leaving a little hesitation in the air. "Remember how I tried to get you to wear matching plaid outfits and no matter what I said you stubbornly refused to even go near the pattern?"

Evie smirks. "Yes."

"That's how I feel now. We're saving Ben together and we won't let anything happen to Mal." Doug then leans forward and kisses Evie with a lot of passion. The daughter of the Evil Queen likes this new persona her boyfriend has adapted. It's stronger and slightly more macho than ever before. She knew he was her Prince Charming, without a doubt. The son of Dopey then puts his hand in with the rest of the group.

"Dizzy…" Mal says, but she sees the determination on the youngest VK's face, they knew there was no stopping her from becoming involved either.

"Let's skip another inspirational speech," Jay mutters. "We have less than an hour until show time."

"Fine, Dizzy you can help, but only if you stay back and give us some cover with those smoke bombs," Evie says sternly.

"I can help with that too," Doug grins with excitement.

Dizzy smiles with purpose, excitement, happiness, and determination. She adds her hands to the group.

Mal smiles, feeling happy and assured that her family from the Isle and Auradon were there to help her. She didn't feel alone anymore, but heroic and resolute, good always conquers evil and while she and the VKs weren't perfect, they were close enough.

"Let's show Uma how Auradon fights back," she smirks. "She's on our turf now."


	24. Chapter 23: It's Going Down

Chapter 23: It's Going Down

The VKs and kids of Auradon begin their preparation for battle. Jay gets in touch with Lonnie and the two gather as many swords and other battle equipment as they can. Doug and Dizzy hurry to the chemistry lab and begin making several smoke bombs to use for cover. Jane texts as many of her friends as she can to meet the group at the Beast statue in front of the school in less than fifteen minutes. They had been told what had happened to Ben and that no one could tell any of the teachers for fear of Ben's life.

Mal stands in front of one of the mirrors in their dorm room. She can see her eyes lighting up green again and she's unable to control it.

"Just try to keep it in check," Evie says, appearing behind her best friend and putting her hand on the girl's shoulder. "If we can get Ben back peacefully, let's do it. Save the dragon routine as the last resort.

Mal turns to face her sister. The daughter of the Evil Queen can see the anger in Mal's eyes, trying to mask the sadness she feels deep inside. Evie knew that her bestie is hurting, a lot, not only had she and Ben just broken up but now his life is in jeopardy, again. She lets out a deep sigh and hugs Mal with all her strength.

"Why does it seem every time we break up, something happens to him?" the daughter of Maleficent asks.

"It could be the universe saying that you two should stay together," Evie mutters with a small smirk.

The purple-haired teen frowns and fights back a few tears.

"I know that him suspending you hurt…"

"More than you'll ever know."

"But was it really his choice? From what you told me, he was pressured into it by Fairy Godmother and Grumpy. You said that he outwardly refused at first…"

"But he still did it," Mal snarls, trying to fight back the tears.

"It was obviously the most difficult decision he'd ever make," Evie says.

"How can you know that? You weren't there, you don't know anything."

"You're right, I don't know anything about it, but I know you and I can tell without a shadow of a doubt that you still love him and you didn't want to break up with him. Your anger got the better of you and you spoke before you knew what you were saying."

"No, I didn't!" Mal denies strongly, trying to keep her anger in check. "After I saw that he picked Auradon over me like he always does I knew we couldn't be together, so I decided to end it before we both got hurt."

"Both… or just you?" Evie inquires, raising her eyebrow.

Mal opens her mouth to protest even more, but the pain of parting with Ben again is too much, so no words come out. She lets the tears fall from her eyes again. She wishes beyond everything that Ben hadn't picked Auradon over their love, suspending her from the school and her home. She knew that she had lied to him about the book, and that did not help, but he still crumbled to the pressure of adults and hurt her. She felt like ending their relationship was the best thing to do… it saved her from further heartbreak. She'd felt a broken heart before, but not nearly as severely as now. It hurt so badly, and she just wanted the pain to stop… she wished that Ben was there to…

She realizes that she needs Ben to feel comforted and safe. Not even Evie, Carlos, and Jay could help her heal, she needed him, she needed her true love… but her angry and hurt feeling were holding her back, preventing her from being happy, from feeling love again. She doesn't know how this happens or fully understands its meaning, but she can't think about it right now.

She wipes the tears from her eyes; she knew this was the wrong time to realize this, just before they were going into battle against her worst enemy. She sucks in her feelings, trying to channel them inwards to put on a brave face. Uma cannot see her weakness for her boyfriend…ex-boyfriend? No doubt the pirate captain would try to exploit it and use it against them. She puts on her bravest face, ready to move forward.

"It's okay," Evie says gently. "We'll deal with this after we get him back and kick Uma out of Auradon."

"Why are you so convinced that Ben and I are meant to be?" Mal asks.

"Because I know love when I see it," Evie says cryptically. "As a princess who's always longed for a Prince Charming, I know and understand it than most people would."

"How does longing for a prince…"

Their conversation is cut off when Carlos enters the room.

"You guys ready? It's almost time."

"Yeah," Mal says, she grabs Evie's hand tightly. "We're ready."

…

The VKs go down to the Beast statue and are shocked by the number of students who have shown up. Lonnie and Jay stand in front of the long line of kids from Auradon, handing out weapons and preparing everyone for the coming fight.

There are two sets of twins present, Whitney and Simon White as well as Paige and Patrick Pan, they all stood together as if being twins would give them an advantage. Tallia cracked her knuckles, excited for what was happening next. Ally stood with her best friend, looking a little nervous with Ruby and Anxelin, daughters of Rapunzel. Jordan, the daughter of Genie has her lamp tucked under her arm in case she needed it. Herkie, son of Hercules and Megara stood with Pin, son of Pinocchio, and Aziz, son of Aladdin and Jasmine. Other students included Li Shang Jr, Lonnie's older brother, Tia, daughter of Tiana and Naveen, Robbie, the son of Robin Hood, Melody, her cousin Arabella, and all seven dwarf sons including Gordon and Double D. Freddie Facilier is present too, she has several voodoo spells and tricks up her sleeve in case things went south with the pirates. To the group's surprise, Audrey and Chad are also amongst the group. This shocks Mal and the others because, for one thing, Audrey was a very prissy princess and had likely never seen a sword in her life. Mal is also wary that the daughter of Aurora and Prince Phillip would want to try and get Ben back by rescuing him. Chad is also a shock considering he'd been the one bad mouthing the VKs and he'd rather surrender than actually fight anyone. Then again, he was on the Swords and Shields team, so his swordsmanship was welcomed as long as he didn't break a nail.

"Does everyone have a sword?" Lonnie asks.

"Do you have a bow and arrows?" Robbie asks. "I work better with those."

"Sorry Rob," Jay says. "This is a swords fight. You don't bring a bow to a sword fight."

"Is it true we're going up against pirates?" Melody asks.

"Is Harry Hook going to be there?" Paige asks.

"Can I get a shot at his ugly head?" Tallia asks.

"All right everyone listen up," Evie demands, using her queenly authority to cipher the questions. "King Ben has been kidnapped by Uma and her band of pirates, known as the War Frats. She wants Mal to come and face her, but it's also likely that these pirates want to take over Auradon."

"So, we're standing our ground," Jane says, coming up to stand with Carlos.

"We're not going to fight unless we absolutely have to," Carlos adds. He gives a sharp look at Chad knowing his arrogance and desire to be the hero could cause this very problem.

"We're going to see what Uma wants and get Ben back, hopefully in that order," Mal adds, trying to sound authoritative in front of the group.

"Also, we're giving everyone smoke bombs," Doug says, as he and Dizzy appear from seemingly out of nowhere. They begin handing out the coloured bombs to every student who is present.

"If you get into trouble, just throw them on the ground, they can give you enough cover to escape," Dizzy adds, trying to put on a brave face despite how anxious she feels inside.

"It's best to stay behind the VKs and Lonnie," Jay says. "We've dealt with these guys before and we know how they fight."

"We're here to protect Auradon and Ben, nothing else," Jane says firmly. She holds a sword in her hand, which seems so foreign to everyone as the sweet and innocent daughter of Fairy Godmother now looks like a warrior.

"Don't underestimate them and above all, don't do anything stupid," Carlos says, giving another direct look at Chad.

"Why does everyone keep looking at me?" the son of Prince Charming and Cinderella asks, but no one answers as Mal notices they have five minutes to get to the beach.

She, Evie, Jay, Carlos, Dizzy, Lonnie, Jane, and Doug all turn and begin leading the group of students towards the beach. Mal sucks in a deep breath and Evie pats her sister's shoulder.

"We can do it," she says confidently. "We'll get him back."

"Whatever happens with Uma, this ends tonight."

 _Please Review. I included characters from the show, the books and a few made up ones as well._


	25. Chapter 24: What's My Name?

Chapter 24: What's My Name?

Uma stands in a clearing of the woods, the fire underneath the cauldron was causing the water from the Enchanted Lake to boil. The daughter of Ursula is smiling internally as she uses her tentacles to add the ingredients she needed. She felt so much like her mother it wasn't even funny, being able to mix the magic with little to no effort. She felt so free out here, she could do anything she wanted with no rules and no restrictions like she did no the Isle. She imagines what will happen once this showdown is over with. Her crew would be free to do whatever they wanted; live the life of real pirates, travelling in the open waters, pillaging lands for treasure, battling other rivals… it was all too perfect, and the anticipation was growing in the VK's stomach as she adds the crows' feet and spiders.

Her mind keeps thinking of how perfect her plan will be, to be rid of Mal permanently and any other kids who were stupid enough to stand with the daughter of Maleficent. She knew that she now had the leverage to bring her rival to her knees. Mal would do anything to protect her precious boyfriend and her status here at Auradon. The so-called lady of the court was anything but a hero or a good person, Uma knew this as she'd grown up with Mal and seen the absolute worst from her. She hoped that her framing the purple haired freak had made things even worse, and now, with Ben as leverage, she'd make the girl pay even more dearly. The thought of keeping Ben around after her plan went through crossed her mind, but Uma saw that beastie boy could fight and would fight against her and her crew. He was too good inside to be a pirate, plus with he and Mal being true love, it was just easier to get rid of him.

She hears noises behind her and Harry Hook emerges from the trees. Her loyal second-in-command would do anything for his captain. She doesn't know why she ever even hung out with Mal, Evie, Jay, or Carlos, they would never do what she wanted them to do. They had too much confidence and ego; Harry, while priding himself on being the son of a captain, was easy to manipulate and after having his heart broken before, easy to control. Uma had given the son of Captain Hook hope and filled his soul with hatred, something that was all too familiar to all Villain Children. Hatred and revenge, it's what fueled her first-mate and herself. Together, they were unstoppable.

Uma turns back into a bi-pedal human as he approaches. He smirks at her.

"Everything ready?" Uma asks.

"We're ready and so is the ship."

"Where's the bait?"

"I left Gil and Percy to watch 'im,"

Uma nods in approval that Harry left two people to guard their prisoner; the son of Gaston, while a brute in terms of strength, was not so reliable in the brains department. Knowing Gil, he'd accidentally let Ben go or something. Having another crew member there

"He put up a bloody hard fight though," Harry goes on, rubbing his arm which had been wrapped up in gauze. "The boy knows his way around a sword. At least Gil did something useful and got him with a vase."

"He just made it too easy," Uma smiles happily.

Harry leans in close to Uma, his heart racing with excitement, but also something more... somethin' deeper and more sensitive. The daughter of Ursula mirrors the pirate's trademark grin. He puts his arm around his captain. The tension between the two was growing intensely. The son of Captain Hook gazes into Uma's eyes, feeling the pull towards her. He gently brushes a turquoise braid from her face. She seemingly blushes.

"Aye, that he did."

"Has he said anything important? Like the code to Fairy Godmother's vault. I was able to get in there once, but I probably won't be able to do it again."

"He can't, put a scarf in his mouth to shut 'im up. 'e kept goin' on about Mal."

"Well, we won't have to hear that for much long…" Uma smiles.

"Good, because it just feels weird without me hook."

She grabs an empty jar and uses a ladle to pour the freshly made green potion inside of it. She fills several jars in case it was needed.

"How are we goin' to do this exactly?" Harry asks with curiosity.

"It's simple, You, Gil, and I will have these jars under our belts." She indicates the now glowing glass jars. "When the time is right, open the jar and throw the liquid into the air in front of you. It will create a portal in mid-air. Don't worry, I've tested it. The odds are that I'll probably be drawing Mal's firepower. Once her power hits the portal, it'll get bigger and more powerful. The pull from it will be hard to fight. Then, when I signal, throw Pretty Boy in, and then stand clear. I'll feed the portal with my magic, sucking them in and making it impossible to for them to escape. Then… I finally get my chance to reign down on Auradon! And everyone will know my name…"

She turns to Harry. The two get very close to one another, inches from their noses touching. Harry can feel her hot breath on his face. He feels shivers going up his spine; he can feel the heat between them. He removes his hat and almost kneels in front of her as if she were queen.

"What's my name?" Uma whispers.

Harry stands up slowly, tucking his hat over his heart and holding hers in his other hand.

"Uma…" he hisses.

He then places the captain's hat on her head. The two VKs lean in even closer, Harry is fighting the urge to give in to his passions... He pauses, noticing something, he remembers the last time he tried this… she slapped him. He can see she's fighting an urge, but it might not be the same as his. Her eyes are impassioned and gleeful, but he sees no devotion, no desire for their lips to meet.

"After Auradon… what then Captain?"

Uma smiles. "Anything we want… We can go anywhere."

"The Lost Revenge would like to stretch her legs…"

"And she will, nothing can stop us, no one can stop us."

"And then…?" he presses.

"Make the world fear us…" the daughter of Ursula grins. Her eyes then wander up to view the position of the moon.

"It's almost time, let's go." She looks away from Harry and shoves a jar into his stomach. He grunts, but the pain was more internal. He sighs heavily, taking the jar and putting it in his belt. He stands up fully again; straightening himself and putting his hat back on, hiding the fact that she hurt more than his pride.

Uma grabs her cutlass, puts the jar in her coat and twirls her mother's necklace.

"Let's make them pay…" she smirks.

 _A/N: Please Review._


	26. Chapter 25: Battle Till the End

Chapter 25: Battle Till the End

Mal and the group walk towards the beach, swords clenched in their grasps and their eyes forward towards the water. The moon is reflected in the sea-green liquid, making it seem like a giant green jewel was floating on the water. The VKs and the AKs can see _The Lost Revenge_ , in the distance, silhouetted in the white light of the night. Evie glances at the clock and sees that it's almost time, she puts on a brave face, but there's anxiety brewing in the pit of her stomach. Carlos feels the same way, unsure of what Uma and her crew might dish out. He knew the daughter of Ursula always had an ace up her sleeve or something else to give her an advantage. He had a bad feeling about this.

The daughter of Maleficent sucks in a deep breath, trying to remain focused. "Whatever goes down between me and Uma," Mal says. "Make sure Ben and no one else gets hurt."

"But Mal what about…?" Carlos begins.

"Forget about me, just keep your girlfriend and everyone else safe…okay?" she insists, her eyes glowing the ever-familiar green again.

"O-Okay," the son of Cruella De Vil swallows; while he was used to Mal's outbursts, his friend had become unusually scary in the past few minutes.

"And remember, keep the Dragon act as a last resort," Jay whispers.

"Just leave Shrimpy to me…"

They finally come to the beach, the group stops. It's eerily quiet, the only sound is the water lapping against the shore. Mal's mind flashes back to the first time she'd come down here, trying to get away from everything, have some time to herself and sulk about Ben not being able to spend time with her. It's here that she discovered the possibility of new worlds, places she wanted to explore, which she might get her chance now since she's been expelled. Despite how hard she tries, she can't stop thinking about Ben. She's worried about him and her anger for Uma outweighs the sadness she felt over their breakup. He didn't deserve to be Uma's prisoner, no matter how badly he'd broken heart.

"Uma!" Mal calls out angrily. "Uma show yourself!"

There's a rustling behind some trees near the shore and everyone is on guard. Doug and Dizzy are close to the tree line, ready to dispense smoke bombs when needed. The rest of the heroes are on guard, ready for anything that might come their way.

"Always was a hot head, weren't ya luv?" a familiar Irish voice chuckles, emerging from the trees.

Harry Hook stands confidently in the gloom of the beach, his sword gleaming in the moonlight. He smirks at the group, his father's pocket watch dangling from his hand. The thing ticked unnervingly and swung back and forth like a pendulum. "Maybe that's why we never worked out Mal. Too much in common."

"Where's Ben?!" Mal demands, not in the move for Harry's games or bringing up their past history.

"Who pretty boy? He's safe, right where he needs to be; it was so fun nicking him again, though he did put up a fight this time..."

"GIVE ME BEN!" Mal snarls, her eyes glowing a very bright green. Evie reaches out to put her hand on her best friend's shoulder to calm her down, but none of them felt very calm, wanting to get this over with.

"And looks like his entire fan club came along too," Harry sneers. "Who knew he was so loved, although not by you Mal; he wouldn't shut up about that he 'broke yer heart' and that 'you'd never forgive him.' Got real tiresome that a handkerchief in the mouth and put an end to that. Least ye know how it feels to have yer heartbroken…"

"We're not your relationship therapist Harry!" Jay snaps. "Get over Mal and give us Ben."

"But where's the fun in that?" the son of Captain Hook smirks. "Here's the deal, you give me me hook back and then maybe we can bring out Mal's ex."

Evie fumbles with her bag, she pulls out the metal hook that held the note and tosses it along the ground. The pirate takes his precious time putting the accessory back in place. This does little to soothe Mal's rising temper.

"You know freedom feels amazing, doesn't it? I don't blame you Villain Kids for stabbin' us in the backs."

"We didn't stab you in the back," Carlos hisses.

"GIVE US BEN!" Jane shouts, which took everyone off guard. The normally meek girl is not glaring fiercely at the pirate, her hand on the sword, ready to attack.

Harry blue eyes go to the one who spoke up, he licks his lips once he lays eyes on the daughter of Fairy Godmother. "Aren't you a right pretty lass," he purrs. "Not used to speakin' yer mind are you. We could use another magic type like you on our crew."

Carlos wraps his hand around Jane's. He could feel the slight quiver in her stance, he knew she was trying to be brave, but she'd never done this before.

"You should dump the puppy lover for a real man," the pirate smirks.

This time, Jay has to restrain Carlos from attacking.

"Chill dude, that's what he wants," the son of Jafar warns.

"YOU HAVE YOUR HOOK BACK, NOW WHERE'S BEN!" Mal shouts that almost everyone on Auradon's campus likely heard it.

"Oh right, Gil…"

There's more rustling in the trees and two more figures emerge. Gil, son of Gaston holds the shoulder of their prisoner. Mal gasps when she's Ben's face.

While the king of Auradon is trying to remain brave, his former girlfriend can see the flicker of fear in his eyes. She can also see that he's been beaten upon, like by Gil, taking after his father's brutish behaviour. His clothes are torn, his hair a mess, there are bruises covering his face as well as dirt smeared on his cheeks. His hands are tied in front of him with rope and Gil forces Ben to kneel in front of them, showing that he was at their mercy and bowing down to him.

"Ben…" Mal manages to choke out.

His hazel-green eyes try to avoid her gaze, but he can't help it. The king is actually surprised about how many students came to his aid… his friends, people who cared for him. The guilt in his stomach over what he did to Mal has him feel helpless and like a total jerk. He was still glad she came to help.

"Not looking so handsome right, now is he?" Harry smirks.

"Let Ben go, this is between Uma and me!" Mal says, her hands begin to glow to match her angry eyes.

"Where is the sea urchin?" Jay asks.

"It wouldn't be a party without me…" A voice from the sea chuckles. Everyone turns as the water of the sea begins to churn and glow. Many of the students hold their breaths; they'd seen this at the Cotillion, some of the royal kids, like Chad, Audrey, Whitney, and Simon take steps back, away from the churning water.

Slowly, but surely, the familiar turquoise braids emerge from the water, followed by Uma's smiling face and her mother's glowing seashell necklace. She smiles, donning her captain's hat with great pride. She laughs at her enemy's face and comes towards the group, her tentacles stopping just before they reach land.

To the daughter of Ursula, this was like a homecoming. To finally face her enemy, with no interference and finally determine who the queen of the Isle, and now Auradon will truly be. Then she and her crew are free to roam the world, doing whatever they wanted.

"Long time no see," Uma laughs.

"Let Ben go, Uma, this is between you and me."

"I know it is, it's just so much fun to have your name dragged through the dirt. And Ben told me what happened, that the 'lady of the court' has been expelled from Auradon Prep. Oh, it feels amazing, even though we all know who did it."

Mal lets out a dragon noise, she's panting really quickly. Evie is the only one to grab her friend's hand, trying to remind her of what could happen if she transformed.

"Uh, uh, uh," Uma taunts. "Watch yourself dragon girl, your boyfriend is still in the crossfire…"

Gil forces Ben closer to the water, allowing Uma's tentacles to wrap around him; one around his neck, another around his chest, Mal can see Ben gasp for air.

"It's… okay, Mal," Ben gasps. He doesn't want this to end in conflict and bloodshed. However, Uma's tentacle prevents him from speaking another word. Mal can see Ben beginning to lose consciousness.

This is the last straw: she lets out a large snarl.

Evie steps back, knowing there's no coming back from this.

"GET BACK!" Carlos shouts, pulling Jane away.

The purple smoke forms around the daughter of Maleficent as her eyes become bright green, and like mother, like daughter, she transforms into a dragon

She spreads her wings and lifts off into the air, she immediately roars angrily at Uma, everyone can see the fireball brewing in her mouth. But she pauses, knowing Uma is using Ben as a human shield.

"Can't do anything while Ben's in the way," Uma taunts, laughing.

The rest of the War Frats emerge from the woods, their swords at the ready for battle. The VKs and the AKs know that the time to act is now. There is no negotiation any longer.

Evie knows what needs to be done in order to help.

"DIZZY!" she hollers out.

On cue, the daughter of Drizella launches several smoke bombs, having quite the arm to do so. Evie, Jay, and Carlos get low to the ground, allowing the smoke bombs to engulf the crew of The Lost Revenge, including Uma. Mal, even though in dragon form, can see that her friends are trying to get Ben from Uma's grasp.

Suddenly, from the bushes, Dude appears, easily evading the smoke, he finds Uma's nearest tentacles and unleashes his favourite type of attack.

Uma screams out in pain, her tentacles retreating, releasing and barely conscious Ben. Knowing, Mal will want to battle, Uma moves deeper into her element, knowing her advantage. Mal is finally able to unleash her fireball and barely misses Uma. But the sea witch's daughter knows the key to getting rid of her rival for good.

"HARRY!" she screams over the chaos, lashing some water at Mal.

Meanwhile, the pirate crew is advancing forward, despite the smoke. Lonnie is the first one to clash swords, she smirks at the pirate and engages. Jane takes her stance, having studied many hours of Swords and Shields games. A pirate swings at her, she backs away; her mind races as she tries to find a way to fight back. The guy takes aim at her head, and Jane holds up the sword to block his attack. When the blades clash, Jane sees an opening, gets into her stance and attacks forward, keeping the pirate at bay. She feels a thrill of excitement and adrenaline inside of her, something unlike a feeling she's ever felt before. She laughs to herself, having never felt so alive!

Several other pirates take on some of the Auradon kids, Audrey is clumsily trying to block an attack, she lets out a scream of terror at merely holding the weapon. She's doing the best she can until Chad comes to her rescue. He engages the War Frat to spare Audrey; however, he becomes overconfident, showing off to his girlfriend, and the pirate manages a kick to the groin. With the son of Cinderella down, the daughter of Phillip and Aurora is forced to fight again. She can't stand this, especially if it would ruin her manicure.

The sets of twins are working together, overpowering their opponents with synchronized movements that seem to be natural in their DNA. Allie and Tallia are fighting back to back, Tallia trying to get a good shot at Harry Hook, however, the first-mate has his own problems.

The son of the infamous pirate captain is trying to grab the king through the smoke. His hook seemingly latches around Ben's shirt and he begins to drag. However, Evie has found Ben as well in the smoke and is putting up a fight. Realizing that Harry would gain the upper hand, Evie uses her mirror to flash the reflection of one of Mal's fireballs into the pirate's face. She grabs Ben's arm and slowly tries to drag him across the gravel.

"I got him!" Evie says, to her friends. Jay then stands up and goes to fight Gil.

Uma and Mal are still exchanging attacks back and forth. Uma knows that the only way for this plan to work is for Harry to throw Ben into a portal.

"DO IT NOW HARRY!" she screams, splashing Mal again.

"But…"

"NOW!" she screams again.

Sighing heavily, Harry removes the jar of potion from his belt. Seeing that Evie and Ben are rather close enough to him, another annoying VK gone is less of a problem.

Evie barely has time to process everything as Harry opens the jar and throws the liquid into the air. A large green portal begins to spiral at her feet and the daughter of the Evil Queen can feel the suction pulling her and Ben towards the centre. She holds on for deal life, her blue hair being whipped in the wind. She can barely hold onto Ben, who is going in and out of consciousness.

"EVIE!" Carlos screams, as he holds onto Dude and tries to avoid the suction of the portal too.

"MAL!" Evie screams.

Harry steps closer and whistles to dragon Mal. He uses his hook to grip the ground and avoid being sucked into himself. When she turns her head, Harry makes his move.

"Have a nice trip," he sneers, he kicks Evie and Ben, Evie screams as she and Ben vanish into the portal.

Mal watches in horror as her best friend and boyfriend vanish. Carlos angrily crawls over, still holding onto his dog. He pushes Harry's hook from the ground, causing the pirate to be sucked in as well. Not thinking this through completely, the son of Cruella, loses his grip and still clinging to Dude plunges into the portal.

"CARLOS!" Jane screams in horror. She attempts to move closer to try and find him.

Jay who is battling Gil is trying to get close enough to try and rescue his best friend. However, when Jay kicks Gil, the jar that held his portal liquid flies through the air and spills onto the already working method of transportation. Before either can react, they are both sucked into it, neither had time to scream.

Mal roars loudly is the first one to react. She impulsively releases a green ball of energy towards the portal, hoping to do something to bring her friends back. This only increases the portal's firepower, making the suction too great for all the students who are fighting. Jane screams as she is pulled in, Lonnie, Chad and all the others can't fight it either. Even the War Frats are unable to resist the pull.

Both Queens of the Isle watch in utter horror as their friends or crew members disappear. Uma realizes this has worked out better, knowing Mal would now try to rescue her friends. She removes her own portal liquid, adds it to the firepower, as well as a touch of her own magic. She then uses one of her tentacles to grab Mal's foot. However, the daughter of Maleficent flies forward, knowing she was going to regret this, but her friends were much more important, charges at the portal, towards the green light and dragging Uma, the cause of this with her.

The two rivals disappear in the portal and all that is left on the beach is some shattered glass and a ship moored in the moonlight.

 _A/N: And now the moment you've all been waiting for. Auradon and Storybrooke are about to collide in so many ways. Please Review._


	27. Chapter 26: What Did I Bring?

Chapter 26: What Did I Bring to Storybrooke?

"Okay, the official test," Crystal says. She holds a vial of green liquid of the now perfected portal potion in one hand and an apple from Regina's tree in other; ready to test its teleportation ability.

"Please tell me how you talked me into this again?" Regina moans in annoyance. The two stand quite some distance from each other, on opposite ends, further down Main Street, near Crystal's father's shop.

"I bribed you with iced lattes," the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin smirks. The former Evil Queen rolls her eyes, wondering how she gets herself into these situations.

Rumple stands in front of his pawn shop, curious to see how this formula worked; he was wondering if it could have saved the years and years he wasted trying to find a magic bean or perfecting his mother's dark curse in order to find his son, Baelfire. Perhaps he should read more like his wife, or perhaps kept her his prisoner longer as his researcher instead of his maid… before he fell in love with her that is. A pregnant Emma and Killian are present too, to ensure the safety of both parties. They would likely only ever arrest Crystal if she used the potion to steal something or blew up a building. Killian keeps his wife behind him at all times to ensure that she and the baby are safe, despite Emma's protests that she could take care of herself. Granny is also present, waiting with bated breath to see if this would work and she would get the chance to visit her granddaughter in Oz. A few other Storybrooke residents watch from the safety of inside their shops or through windows, knowing very well how unstable magic could be.

"Tell me why we're doing this in front of your father's shop?" Regina asks, still not happy that she was talked into this.

"So, if something goes wrong, he might have the tools and the power to reverse its effects."

"That is not exactly reassuring at our end, lass," Killian calls out.

"It's a small amount of potion, it won't suck the town into a vortex, I promise. Besides, I'm just teleporting an apple."

"Nothing more perfect to send to the Evil Queen," Rumple chuckles to himself.

"You ready?" Crystal calls to Regina.

"Ready as I'll ever be," she moans.

Crystal pops the cork of the vial and pours the liquid onto the pavement. A very small portal begins flashing green at her feet. The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin can feel the pull from the portal, so she takes a step back as a precaution. She then remembers the instructions from the book; if no one is entering the portal, an individual with magic had to feed it with just enough power to get a portal to open at the other end. Using the softest amount of her light purple magic; the light side of her powers, she feeds the swirling vortex in front of her, just enough to make it a bit bigger. Giving the apple a kiss for luck, she drops it into the centre of the green circle. The apple disappears, then Crystal waves her hand to close her end of the portal. She then waits and watches intently for Regina's end.

The Evil Queen stands ready, unsure of what was coming… hopefully just an apple and nothing else. She has to be ready in case the portal opened underneath her, and she had to teleport away very quickly.

Suddenly, a tiny green portal opens in front of her, something red comes flying upwards from the centre. Regina catches the apple in her hand and uses her own magic to close the portal.

"YES!" Crystal cheers happily, jumping up in excitement. She'd finally perfected a new way of travelling between realms instead of waiting for Tiny's beans to grow. A reluctant Regina forces herself to be impressed by the girl's achievement, despite having to sacrifice one of her best outfits in its previous creation to get there. Both Emma and Killian look impressed, even applauding her, as well as Rumpelstiltskin. He goes over and pats his daughter on the back to congratulate her on the success of her developing new Arcane knowledge. While she had her ups and downs with magic, the Dark One is confident in his daughter, that she would be a great wielder of magic for the years to come. She impulsively hugs him, something that he is still not used to.

The girl then turns to Granny with a huge smile. She rushes to the old woman.

"All we need to do is get you two jars of this stuff, one for the way there and one for the way home and you're set."

"Thank you, Crystal," Granny says with a genuine smile. "For not giving up and allowing me to see Ruby for her birthday."

"Its what heroes do," the girl says modestly. "Help people… and hopefully, pay off the bill my family cranks up at your place?" She winces.

Granny gives a mischievous half-smile. "I'll think about it."

"Don't forget to give Ruby all the love in the world and tell her that we hope she comes to visit in the future."

The old woman nods.

Rumple is thinking very hard to himself; wishing he'd had his daughter's tenacity and determination back in the day to make a new method of transportation possible. If he had not been so focused on gaining power, then maybe he could have found Bae sooner and avoided the entire curse in general. Of course, if he'd done that, he'd have never met Crystal's mother, Lillian, conceived his only daughter, only to lose her and find true love in Belle during those years of seeking power and spreading chaos. There was much that he regretted back then, but now is the time to invest in the future with hope and love.

Crystal pulls out another sample of the potion from her pocket. "I want to do one more test, to see if the portals can be conjured in mid-air, creating almost like a doorway to walk through."

"What are you going to teleport?" Granny asks.

Crystal conjures up a small white rabbit. "Something living this time." She hands the animal to her father to hold. The Dark One strokes the creature gently on the back and Crystal gets a flashback to James Bond villains stroking white cats.

The girl then texts Emma and Killian to let them know what was going to happen. While the couple is reluctant to be on the receiving end, Crystal reassures them, saying that it would not be big, and all they would have to do is catch the rabbit after it ran through. She explains that she teleported it from the pet store and would have to give it back after. If it worked with Regina's apple, it should work with them, only with a living animal and an intended direction. They stand in the road, next to Regina. Granny and Rumple take some steps back. Crystal uncorks another bottle and tosses the liquid into the air. She slowly makes the tiny portal big enough for the rabbit to hop through.

Just as she's taking the rabbit into her arms, the portal suddenly becomes bigger and bigger. The wind picks up heavily.

"Crystal…" Granny calls out. "What's happening?"

"Not a clue!" the girl screams. She shoves the rabbit back into her father's arms and steps back from the now very large vortex of power. Regina, Killian, and Emma also stand back, going towards the clock tower to avoid being sucked in.

The daughter of the Dark One then uses her magic to try and counteract the portal, shrink it if possible. However, it only seems to feed the thing's power.

"What the hell is happening?" Crystal calls over the wind.

She hits it with a blast of magic, much darker than she intended for it. When the two sources of power meet, a bright flash of light blinds all of them. They hear a distant roar.

When the burst of energy dims enough for them to see, the group is completely gobsmacked at the scene in front of them. There is a pile of kids, most of them unconscious, lying in the middle of Main Street, but what scares them the most is a giant dragon has seemingly come through the portal. Clinging to the leg of the said dragon is a girl with turquoise hair who has the bottom half of an octopus-like Ursula. The dragon's wings flap very hard, keeping the two creatures high above the tiny town they had now become trapped within.

Crystal's eyes meet the purple dragon's green one and she swallows hard.

"What the hell did I bring to Storybrooke?"

 _A/N: What indeed? Please review._


	28. Chapter 27: Taming the Dragon

Chapter 27: Taming the Dragon

Mal looks around utterly confused. She's just come through a portal into a strange looking land with people staring up at her. She watches as the green portal that she and Uma had come through close and she sees her friends lying in the middle of the street. She lets out a loud roar that seems to rattle the surrounding buildings. She watches as more figures exit buildings into the streets of this strange land, that looks like a small town of some kind.

She watches as a girl with a jean jacket attempts to get near her friends, to which Mal lets out another roar to keep the stranger away. The two lock eyes for a moment, the dragon girl pauses for a moment as the two make some sort of connection. She can see the girl's blue eyes seem to glow for a brief moment before Mal has to look away in order to keep herself in flight. She becomes tired of flying, plus the strain of keeping Uma up in the air is now causing her wings to become tired and her scaly body to become heavy.

Uma is also frightened but does her best to hide it. She's twenty feet in the air with one of her tentacles wrapped around her archrival's scaly leg, hoping that her tentacles will not fail her. She feels several jolts of Mal's leg.

"DON'T YOU DARE DROP ME!" Uma screams. Her tentacles are struggling to keep a grasp as Mal's scaley foot continues to try and shake the cephalopod off.

Uma's heart is pounding in her chest, she knows that her rival either wants to let her drop or she can't hold her up any longer. The turquoise-haired cephalopod looks desperately for another place to grab on from the height she is at. Fortunately, the highest point in this strange land is a clock tower; so, stretching as far as one of her additional limbs could reach, the daughter of Ursula grabs the tip of the red dome just above the clock's face. Once her suction cups makes contact with the tip of the roof of the tower, her other tentacles slowly release Mal's legs. Once she's safely on top of the roof, Mal takes off further into the sky, beginning to circle above them, trying to find a place to land and deal with Uma once and for all.

…

Both Regina and Emma's hands light up in anticipation of protecting the town. Whatever the portal brought through included a dragon and a knock-off of Ursula hanging from its legs. They watch with hearts in their throats as the beast continues to roar at them and as the parody of Ursula except with blue hair escaping the dragon's clutches by clinging to the clock tower.

"This is why you should never mess around with portals Crystal!" Regina sighs upset that now both she and Emma must clean up the mess.

"Where the hell did that thing come from?" Emma mutters. Killian stands next to his wife, his cutlass in the air, trying to maintain eye contact with this beast. Rumpelstiltskin stands very still, admiring the beauty of the creature and watching the spectacle like it was an amusing show.

"I think it's best not to ask," Regina mutters.

"It's not Lady Lily having a temper tantrum is it?" the captain asks.

"No, wrong colour," Emma answers. "Plus, Lily doesn't have horns like that."

"What about Dragon Lady herself?" Regina asks.

"Different horns and colouring," Rumple says, seemingly very calm and almost amused by this display of imminent danger to the citizens of Storybrooke. Perhaps he missed the excitement that came with having a magical town.

However, his daughter has not said a word since the dragon came through, she was letting her vision take over to detect the energy of this new creature. Her aura was glowing a harsh bright purple, with flecks of green and blue mixed in. The heart had spots of gray mixed into the red and the symbol of a flaming heart, that slightly resembled a dragon appears below the glowing organ. The shape is very familiar to her… She seemed to be just like Maleficent, human/dark fairy but could turn into a dragon. Crystal could also detect the magic radiating from her. She was a powerful being, almost too powerful for her own good. Despite how threatening the dragon looks, Crystal can tell that the creature is a she and _**she**_ is very afraid and confused.

The creature begins circling above them, everyone flinches in fear, but the daughter of the Dark One remains completely calm, trying to make a connection with the female dragon again. She was trying to find out more until she sees a flash of Emma's white magic about to attack.

"Wait don't!" Crystal says.

"What why?!" Regina asks.

"I don't think she wants to hurt us."

"SHE?" Emma asks.

"Yes, it's a she."

"What the bloody hell does it want then?" Killian asks, grabbing Emma's arm to protect her.

"She's scared, she sees us as a threat of some kind. I don't think she wants us to go near her friends… watch…"

Crystal takes a step towards the pile of teenagers still unconscious in the middle of the street and the dragon growls loudly. She then takes a step away and the growling stops.

"She must know them," the young adult concludes.

"But how are we supposed to help them if she won't let us near them?" Emma asks.

"We have to show her that we're not a threat to them or her, which means the magic has to go away."

"You can't be serious?" the former Evil Queen gasps.

"It's the only way she'll calm down. She is a lot like Maleficent and Lily, scarily so. She's human but can change into a dragon. We need her to turn back to normal, so we can talk. We need to be super careful in human form too, she also has powerful magic."

"Interesting," Rumpelstiltskin purrs.

"Dad don't even think about it!" Crystal snaps.

"What about the Ursula thing on the clock tower?" Emma asks.

"She's safe for now, let's focus on one thing at a time. So first, we need to power down the magic."

The daughter of the Dark One is the first to power down her magic, the purple magic leaving her hands. She stares at the Saviour and the former Evil Queen, giving them an insistent look to listen to her. If they wanted to protect the town, they'd have to show they weren't going to attack this she-dragon. Very slowly, both women let the lights in their hands' flicker and go out completely, they were hesitant to do so, but as soon as they did, the dragon's demeanour changed. The growling stops, and she seemed to circle less and less. The dragon's wings seem to slow down enough that she is hovering just above the buildings and is close enough where she can face the protectors of the town, her eyes looking at them uncertainly.

"Weapons too," Crystal says.

With a deep sigh, Killian also puts his cutlass back on his belt, but his good hand remains on the handle, just in case the beast decides to change her mind.

With all the courage she can muster, Crystal takes a step towards the hovering dragon.

"It's okay," she says loudly. "We don't want to hurt you or your friends. We were just surprised by everything and we see dragons more often than you think. We're like you… we have magic like you. I know you're like Maleficent."

Everyone notices a shift in the dragon's eyes. They no longer look angry and they seem to glow with less aggression. At the mention of the name, the dragon slowly lowers herself down until her four claws reach the street level. Her wings fold inwards, but not without taking a few shingles off some of the buildings and loosening a gutter pipe. The creature seems to wince at the damage she does. Her claws also scrape up some of the asphalt as she lands, but Crystal gives her a reassuring smile.

"We can fix that later," she says gently.

The dragon's wings fold in like she was covering herself for protection, then a cloud of light purple smoke engulfs the form. It then seems to shrink and with a poof, there is a human girl standing in the place of the dragon.

Everyone is shocked by how young the girl is. She begins to pat areas of her purple leather jacket and outfit that were smoking. She has light purple hair that reaches a little bit over her shoulders and has bangs hovering over her eyes. Her eyes are green with flecks of gold within them. She wears a purple leather jacket with patches of green mixed in, along with gold studs everywhere on the outfit. She has a few belt chains at her hips and wears blue jeans and what looks almost like combat boots. She could pass for a punk rocker at a concert. She looks at the group of adults with confusion, but there was no longer anger on her face. Emma and Regina recognize that look that she's masking fear, trying to appear to be tough, as they too had used the expression many times in their pasts.

Crystal is the first to take a step closer to this girl, and she takes a step back.

"It's okay," Crystal says calmly. "We don't want to hurt you."

"I don't want to hurt you either," she says in a low voice. "Now what did you say about my mother?"

 _Please Review_


	29. Chapter 28: Hooked on Guilt

Chapter 28: Hooked on Guilt

"What did you just say?" Emma asks, her eyes going wide at the girl's words.

"My mother, what do you know about my mother?"

"Who is your mother?" Regina asks.

"Maleficent," Mal says as if it's the most obvious thing ever.

The group from Storybrooke look absolutely shell-shocked by this girl's statement. All of them knew that Maleficent did have a daughter, her name was Lily, but she was here in town and she'd been in The Land Without Magic since before Emma was born. This purple-haired girl didn't look a day over 16 or 17 and she'd clearly come from another realm altogether. No one knows how to speak or respond to this girl. Mal folds her arms, becoming impatient by not having any sort of answer.

"Your mother is Maleficent?" Crystal asks, her shock recovering a bit faster than the others.

"Yes, she is, why is that so hard to process? You guys did say you knew about magic, don't you?"

"We do… it's just, the Maleficent we know already has a daughter…"

"Yeah, me," Mal says sassily.

"No, her name is Lily,"

"What?" Mal's head becomes clouded and confused by everything. She was the only daughter of Maleficent, and always had been. With whom the horned woman had conceived with was still a mystery, but she was downright certain that her mother was the mistress of all evil. Where had they gone? What was this place? What the heck did Uma, Harry, and Gil do? Had they truly travelled to another realm entirely? If they did, which realm was it? Her heart begins to beat loudly in possible excitement, but then she remembers her friends. She pushes past the group and goes to the heap of students still laying in the middle of the road.

"I've got an ambulance on the way," a blonde-haired woman says, on her cell phone, while she holds the hand of a small girl with blonde pigtails. "You might have to make a few trips to get them all to the hospital," she says into the phone.

Mal kneels next to Evie and Ben; she looks over her ex-boyfriend with great concern. His face was badly bruised and there were also cuts in some places. His clothes are torn, and she can see the ugly marks that Uma's tentacles made on his neck, they were turning purple which meant they were starting to bruise. The daughter of Maleficent becomes very enraged that Uma would do this to him, basically trying to suffocate Ben when he'd done nothing to her. As she tries to move him closer to her, the pain on his face becomes evident. She knows that trying to move him further might make it worse. She then tries to free his wrists instead. Despite everything that had happened between them, Mal still cared about Ben… more than anyone else it seemed. She struggles with the knots that she decides to use magic to burn the ropes off.

However, when she mutters the unbinding spell, nothing happens. She says it a bit louder, but still, nothing happens.

Suddenly, a hand appears on her shoulder.

"Would you like some help Lass?"

Mal looks up to see a hand filled with many rings on her shoulder. Attached to that hand is a man completely clad in leather, chains dangling from his chest, which is partially exposed by a v-neck shirt. He wears a long overcoat, also made of leather. He has dark black hair, a full beard, and the most vivid looking blue eyes the daughter of Maleficent has ever seen. She finds them slightly hypnotic. He is a handsome looking man, almost more so… she then notices that he has no left hand. Her heart climbs into her throat when she sees the curved piece of metal in the shape of an infamous tool. The same tool that Harry wore in order to idolize his…

"Father," Mal gasps to herself in a barely audible whisper.

"What was that love?"

Now the teen could definitely see the resemblance. The bright blue eyes, the dark hair, the similar sounding accent. There is no doubt that this is Captain Hook, father of Harry Hook, who is amongst the pile of students. Had they landed on some new version of Isle of the Lost? No, the Isle was a dump compared to this place, which is nice and seemed to have nice furnishings, good clothes, and great places to shop and eat all around. This was not a version of the Isle, but then again, that portal could have taken them almost anywhere.

She starts to become slightly defensive, not wanting Ben to be handled by this notorious villain. Ben has had enough experiences with pirates. However, this Captain Hook seems softer, gentler in a lot of ways as he kneels down next to the teenager and removes a small dagger from his belt. Mal becomes very tense and grinds her teeth together; she needs to be ready to use her magic… only it wasn't working properly. How is she going to defend the king of Auradon without magic?

She only lets out a small sigh of relief after the pirate uses the dagger to cut Ben's bonds and then puts it back in his belt.

"Are… are you, Captain Hook?"

"Aye, that is usually my more colourful moniker, but here I'm usually known as Killian."

"Killian?"

"Aye, and who is this handsome lad, someone special to you?"

"He was…" she mutters to herself. The pirate looks at her with his piercing eyes, she feels as if he's looking into her soul. She does her best to avoid eye contact.

"Here," the brown-haired girl says, coming up to the group, spooking the teen once again. The girl offers her jean jacket to be put under Ben's head. With a little reluctance, the purple-haired girl allows the new stranger to help him.

"It will keep his head supported until the ambulance gets here… What's his name?" she asks.

"Ben."

"Is he your boyfriend?" she asks.

Mal bites her lip to fight back the tears filling her eyes. She shakes her head quickly and then goes to look at her best friend, Evie.

"Evie… Evie…" Mal says, shaking her friend's shoulder.

"Be careful Love," Killian says. "We don't want to hurt her anymore."

Mal swallows a large lump in her throat. She feels the tears come back up, she's kicking herself for not better protecting her friends. Instead, she let her inner dragon out and became hell-bent on stopping Uma, instead of helping those who needed her more. This time, Mal removes her own leather jacket and puts it behind her best friend's… her sister's head.

"I'm so sorry Evie…" she whimpers. She takes Evie's hand in hers and squeezes it.

The daughter of Maleficent then notices that other people have begun appearing, coming out of the buildings in this tiny town and approaching the wounded children. They immediately begin helping the others, wrapping them in articles of clothing to keep them warm, tending to any wounds they might have, and overall trying to make them as comfortable as she can. She is surprised by the genuine kindness that these strangers are giving them… it's as if they were used to people falling out of portals into their town.

"We could just heal him now," the brown-haired girl is saying, still helping with Ben.

"I think we should let him decide," the blonde woman says. She wears a red leather jacket over a white sweater, that looked slightly too big for her. She wears jeans and black boots and wears a strange looking weapon and star on her belt. The woman begins to help Carlos and Dude. She examines the son of Cruella De Vil all over.

"This one is fine," she says. "He's just unconscious."

"And the dog?" the younger brunette girl asks.

"Same thing as far as I can tell." The woman then gets out her phone and seems to dial a number. Once she gets an answer she says… "Hey Dad, we've got a hurt animal out here, which is more your cup of tea than mine."

A black-haired woman from the group also kneels down next to Jay, who is not too far from where Gil lays. She also begins to look him over. Although Mal doesn't know what they are doing, it is standard first-aid for everyone. Mal wants to go towards her other friends, but she feels obliged to stay with her best friend and her boyfriend… ex-boyfriend.

Soon after, a man with dirty-blonde hair arrives, with a woman with ebony coloured hair cut into a stylish bob, he kneels down next to Dude and begins to inspect the animal all over. Mal vaguely hears the words "former vet" said aloud.

Eventually, several ambulances show up with red lights flashing. A team of emergency workers begin to put the children on stretchers or gurneys and put them in the back of the white vehicles. They appear to be able to fit two in each of the three ambulances. One by one, the pile of children dissipates, all being carried up to what the purple-haired teenager can assume is the hospital ward. Mal stays with her friends the entire time, staring blankly at the action happening around her. She is unable to do anything. She's still very much in shock about what has happened to them and she's overwhelmed with guilt about their current situation.

…

Eventually, only a handful of kids remain. The daughter of Maleficent watches as Jane is loaded into an ambulance on a stretcher, followed by Dizzy Tremaine.

The ambulance people check on both Carlos and Jay, muttering that they were okay, but still needed full check-ups. Mal is unable to say anything as her best male friends are put on stretchers and rolled to the awaiting emergency vehicle.

Finally, the last set of workers reach where Mal has been staying with Ben and Evie the entire time. She's still in some sort of deep trance because she doesn't hear one of the workers asking her a question.

"Huh?" she says in confusion.

"I said, can you please move Miss, so we can get them on the gurneys?"

A hand reaches out and places itself on the teen's shoulder. Mal looks up to see the brown-haired girl giving her a reassuring smile.

"It'll be okay," she says quietly.

The teenage girl feels reluctant to let go of both Evie and Ben's hands. She hadn't even noticed that her hands had become numb from clinging to those she loved so hard. With some persuading, after she sees Ben being put in a neck brace and then lifted carefully onto the gurney does she let go. She follows them to the ambulance and stands there, watching as her loved ones are loaded inside. Once both Evie and Ben are secured in the vehicles, the workers herd the purple-haired teenager into the back as well. She sits on a bench as only catches a glimpse of the group whom she'd met earlier before the doors are slammed shut and the vehicle drives away with the lights flashing and the sirens blaring.

Crystal stands on the street, holding her jean jacket in her arms. Emma comes up behind her and taps her on the shoulder.

"Let's get over there, we're going to have a lot of reports to write up."

 _A/N: Please Review._


	30. Chapter 29: Check the Introductions

Chapter 29: Check the Introductions

"Hello," a doctor with bleach blonde hair that was spiked in certain places. He looked like he should be at a punk-rock concert rather than working in a hospital. He approaches the place where Mal is sitting on an examination table. She was unable to stay with Ben and Evie in the flurry of hospital activity. Nurses were rushing everywhere with these patients, the place was a mess of chaos, and both of her friends were wheeled away on gurneys in commotion. Mal tried to insist that she was fine and that she didn't need any medical attention, but a nurse put her in an examination room and locked the door. Normally, Mal would just pick the lock, but it was locked from the outside, so she was stuck until the doctor entered. "Sorry it took so long to see you since all of you have come through that portal, we've been busier than ever."

Mal crosses her arms in annoyance, knowing this freaky doctor should be treating her friends rather than her.

"There's no reason for me to be here, I'm fine."

"I will be the judge of that," he says firmly, taking his stethoscope from around his neck and putting it against her chest. "I'm Doctor Whale by the way and your name is…"

"Mal…"

"Well Mal, just take a deep breath in for me."

Knowing that the faster this is over, the faster she can find her friends, the daughter of Maleficent does as she is told. She takes a frustrated breath in.

"And out."

She releases it.

"I know travelling through portals is a nasty business, so we need to give each of you a check-up to ensure you weren't hurt by any of the magical side effects…" he explains. He then reaches into the pocket of his lab coat and removes a small bright light. She begins shining it in her eyes. She blinks rapidly, not appreciative of a light in her eyes. "Can you look up at the ceiling please?"

She rolls her eyes upward.

"And down to your left… now right… Now follow my finger…"

Mal's eyes begin to glow green as she continues to tolerate this ridiculous exam. Dr. Whale looks surprised for a moment but then goes about examining her ears as if nothing had happened.

"And have you felt any pain in your joints or your head?"

"No," she grumbles.

"Not even when you banged your wings against the building? I'm surprised turning into a dragon doesn't cause more physiological pain to the body."

"Wait, you know about that?"

"This is a small town, nothing stays a secret for very long, plus it's hard not to see a giant purple dragon flying through town."

He then puts on a pair of rubber gloves. He gently takes her neck in his hands.

Mal pulls away, very alarmed. It feels as if he's going to strangle her.

"What are you doing?!" she screeches.

"I'm checking to see if you have any head trauma by rotating your neck."

"I don't,"

"Well you may know that, but I don't. I'll be very careful, and it will only take a minute, I promise."

With a sigh, she lets the doctor do what he needs to. He rotates her neck from all sides and checks for any bumps or bruises. Dr. Whale then goes to the nearby counter to search for more supplies.

"I'm just going to take a blood sample now…" he says holding up a needle.

Mal flinches, never having liked needles. She pulls her arm away. "Why do you need my blood?"

"We're feeding it to a vampire."

The purple-haired teenager's eyes glow green again.

"I'm kidding," he chuckles. "It's standard procedure for all new patients."

"I'm not a patient," she insists.

"If you are in this hospital, you are now," he says. "It won't hurt I promise."

Knowing that they were wasting time, the teenager gives her arm back for the doctor to take her blood. She cringes and looks away. The sharp feeling of it being inserted into her arm is felt and she grinds her teeth to bite back the pain. She then feels pressure and something soft on her arm. She turns to see the doctor pressing cotton on her arm as the procedure was over.

"There, all done, thank you for being patient. I do detect that you are slightly dehydrated, possible because of all the flying you did. You must have also had some form of distress that has caused you to cry, mixed with slight exhaustion, as your eyes are slightly bloodshot and inflamed. I recommend that you find a glass of water immediately and get some rest. Other than that, you're in perfect health. Thank you Mal, you are free to go, and I will go tend to your other friends. I have another fellow in a pirate hat to tend to next."

"Finally," she sighs as she gets off the table. She then hurries into the hallway. She begins to look for her friends as nurses and doctors mill about the place. She's about to turn around to go with Dr. Whale to find everyone, but instead, he's already disappeared down another corridor.

She starts to hear voices coming from further down the hall. She decides to go there, find her friends and maybe get some answers.

She finds the waiting room of the hospital filled with people from the town, some were familiar to her and others were not.

"There's been no sign of the blue-haired octopus…" a voice is saying.

Captain Hook or Killian stands with his good arm hooked around the waist of the blonde woman in the red leather jacket. The two seemed to match each other in terms of outfits. Mal then sees that the woman wears a silver band on her hand, indicating marriage. Was she… married to Captain Hook? This pirate captain… Killian certainly was different from the ruthless villain she knew. The Captain Hook or James Hook she knew was ruthless, sadistic, arrogant, manipulative, clumsy, and sometimes even abusive. He ran _Hook's Inlet and Shack_ , a fishing shop close to the docks on the Isle, where his ship _The Jolly Roger_ used to moored nearby before Harry and Gil likely stole it to come to Auradon, and there were often crocodiles that swam in the nearby waters surrounding the shack. He was cranky and obviously, like many of the villain parents, he treated his children, including Harry with no love or respect. This Hook, however, seemed nicer, gentler, willing to help free Ben and do what he could to aid everyone who had come through the portal. It was almost alien for her to see him so kind. Everyone seemed to trust the villain as the blonde woman lays her head on his shoulder, a sign of comfort and affection.

The brown-haired girl with the jean jacket who helped Ben is there; her blue eyes filled with worry. She wears a golden, heart-shaped locket around her neck and she holds her jacket in her arms.

She stands next to a man with a cane. He is dressed in a black business suit. His dark brown/graying hair is trimmed neatly and his brown eyes give off an air of menace to them as he stands firmly in place. A woman with dark brown hair, with a hint of red shining in her curls, stands next to him. Her bright blue eyes convey worry and she holds a baby, who seemed to have similar hair to the man. Mal immediately assumes that they are some kind of family. The baby seems to be sleeping on his mother's shoulder comfortably

The woman who had helped Jay is also there, her dark black hair now pulled up into a messy ponytail, her dark brown eyes looking concerned at whatever was being said in the group. Her appearance looked almost strangely familiar to Mal, but she couldn't quite place the woman's face in her memories.

The man who examined Dude on the street has dirty blonde hair, an unshaven face and bright blue eyes, which gaze down at the sleeping dog in his arms. His hands gently stroke the dog's fur to keep him content. The woman with ebony black hair in a bob cut also had very pale skin and green eyes. She holds another baby in her arms. The couple seemed familiar too, but the daughter of Maleficent was not sure where she had seen them before. The little baby boy peers around at the hospital in curiosity. He locks eyes with Mal for a moment and smiles. He points imperiously at her and starts babbling. The girl with brown hair looks in the direction of the boy's tiny finger and the two girls lock eyes again. The first time they had encountered one another; Mal could tell almost immediately that this girl was not evil and that she didn't want to hurt her in dragon-form. It's as if the girl understood that Mal was merely afraid and didn't want to hurt anyone. Her eyes conveyed a personality of knowledge, patience, kindness and a little bit of sadness and anger. The purple-haired teen had seen the sad look before; all the VKs had it, expressing the frustration of who they were as people and hiding the sadness of rejection they felt from society. It was a tough façade that even Mal gave the world daily to hide her insecurities as a person.

"Mal…" the girl says.

The group of adults and children turn towards where the purple-haired girl is standing. Once again, the younger girl with the golden locket is the first to approach her. It was as if this girl either had more courage than the others to approach this Villain Kid or that they agreed that someone closer in age to Mal would make her feel more comfortable to talk to.

"Are you okay?" she asks.

"I'm fine, I was fine the whole time."

"Sorry, regular procedure," the woman with black hair and brown eyes says, coming to stand next to the girl with the locket.

"Do you know where my friends are?" she asks.

"We will take you to all of them Mal," the blonde woman says. She then shines a star-shaped badge that is hanging from her belt to the teenager. "Killian and I are the sheriff and deputy of this town and we're going to need your help in identifying everyone and telling us what happened to you."

Mal just nods. The blonde-haired man comes over with Dude.

"Is this your dog?" he asks.

"He belongs to my friend Carlos. Is he okay?"

"He's fine, nothing to worry about, he's just sleeping," he then carefully hands the brown dog to her. "I'm David by the way, David Nolan."

"I'm Crystal, Crystal Miller," the brown-haired girl says, twirling her locket between her fingers.

"I'm Regina Mills," the woman who looked vaguely familiar to Mal, introduces herself. "I'm the mayor of Storybrooke."

"Storybrooke?" Mal asks, raising her eyebrow. How very cliché and a weird sounding name.

"That's the name of the town," Regina explains.

"I'm Belle and this is Gideon," the woman with curly dark hair says.

"B-Belle as in…"

"From _Beauty and the Beast_ , yes" Crystal nods.

Mal's eyes go wide and her mouth drops open. She holds tightly to Dude in confusion and takes a step back to process this. Her mind is now a whirlwind of questions that needed answers. Belle was Ben's mother, but… she looked so different and she had a son named Gideon... How was that possible?! She then remembers her conversations with Ariel and her mentioning a Belle and her having a son named Gideon and she was married to... Suddenly, it all clicks into place!

"Does… does that make you Rumpelstiltskin?" she asks pointing to the man with the cane.

He raises his eyebrow. "It does,"

"How do you know that?" Killian asks.

"I… I met Ariel, at least your version of Ariel not too long ago. She told me about this place in The Land Without Magic realm and that there was a Belle here who had a son named Gideon and married Rumpelstiltskin instead of King Beast/Adam."

"What do you mean a version of Ariel?" Regina asks.

"Well, Henry is in love with another Cinderella, so I guess in another realm Belle would have married someone else…" the blonde woman pipes up.

"Like in the movie!" Crystal agrees. "That explains why you said your mother was Maleficent, you weren't lying, it was just a different Maleficent."

"I…I guess."

"Well, I'm Snow White," the woman with short hair introduces herself.

"That's why you look so familiar," Mal gasps, connecting the dots. "You're Snow White!"

"Yes, I am, and this is Neal, our son," she says to the little boy. He waves at her happily. The purple-haired teenager can't help but smile at him.

"So that makes you Prince Charming," the teenager realizes, pointing at David.

"That's just a nickname, my real name is David," he says.

"I'm Emma Swan-Jones," the blonde woman says. "And this is Killian."

"We've already met, you're Captain Hook,"

"Aye," the blue-eyed pirate nods.

"What princess are you?" Mal asks Emma.

"I'm actually the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming."

"But… that's impossible…you-you're…you all look the same age!"

"It's a long story," Rumpelstiltskin says.

"A VERY long story," Crystal agrees. She goes over and takes Gideon from Belle to give her step-mother a break.

"So, who are you?" Mal asks Regina.

"I am… I mean I was known as The Evil Queen…"

Mal's mouth hangs open in shock, realizing that this was another version of Evie's mother. Her eyes go wide, and she feels unable to really speak.

However, at that moment, Dude wakes up in her arms and starts speaking for her. He stretches out.

"Ah, man, am I hungry," he says. He turns to Mal and smiles. "Oh hey Mal, do you mind scratching my butt, it really itches."

It's the group from Storybrooke's turn to look shocked by what has just happened. While they were all fairy tale characters, and dragons were a common staple around here, apparently talking dogs were not.

"Did he just… talk?" Regina gasps.

Dude answers with a wag of his tail. "Yeah, of course, I can talk. Just wait for it lady, you haven't seen anything yet…"

 _A/N: Please Review. Special thanks to jestermon101 for the plethora of reviews._


	31. Chapter 30: Friends and Enemies

Chapter 30: Friends and Enemies

"Well that is certainly something you don't see every day," Killian says.

"You guys see dragons, knights, curses, and mermaids on a daily basis and this is what shocks you?" Mal asks.

"I'd hate to see what scares you guys," Dude says. "Hey Mal, where are we?"

"The Land Without Magic," she explains, holding Dude in her arms.

"No wonder it smells so different. Okay, who smells like seawater and eyeliner,"

Regina and Crystal snort, trying to stifle their laughter. Rumple is also looking very amused.

"Hey buddy, what's with the utensil?" the talking animal continues. "Is it you, Captain Crook that smells like makeup and old seaweed? What is that thing for anyways, opening cans or herding sheep? Could you make it more useful and open a can of dog food for me?"

Killian does not look particularly amused, but Emma's trying to hide her smiles. The pirate is used to Regina's sarcastic comments about his appearance, the Dark One's daughter's too, but coming from a talking dog is something not entirely pleasing to him. He bites his lip to hide the annoyance.

"Hey… Dude how about this?" Crystal offers, she waves her hand and conjures up a nice chewy bone for him. "Will this curb your appetite?"

"Oh man, you are now officially my new best friend in this town," the dog says, wagging his tail in excitement. The young adult gives him the bone which he chews on happily.

Mal lets him down onto the floor to enjoy his treat. Suddenly, Neal begins squirming in his mother's arms, making a big fuss.

"Honey, what's wrong?" she asks.

Neal babbles something and is pointing down, kicking, and trying to communicate his desire to be let down. His mother obliges and places him on the floor, to which the toddler crawls over to Dude. The dog looks at him with the bone in his mouth, cocking his head to the side in curiosity. Neal reaches over and grabs a clump of the dog's brown fur rather roughly.

"Ow, hey…" Dude barks, dropping the bone in pain.

"Gentle Honey, gentle," Snow says. She grabs her son's hands to release the clump of fur the toddler has in his grasp; she then guides his hand gently to show him how to pet the dog properly. Once the little prince gets the hang of it, he starts petting Dude with a much softer touch. The talking dog then sniffs the baby curiously.

"How come you don't walk like the rest of the humans?" he asks.

Neal makes some sort of noise as if to answer the question. A big smile spreads across the tiny tot's face, happy to hear this animal talking to him.

"Sorry, I don't speak your language…" The brown dog then goes up and licks the toddler's face, to which Neal squeals in uncontrollable delight. The happy noises make the others towering over the two smile widely. Dude continues to lick the boy's face. "Mmmm, what did he have for lunch, peanut butter? He tastes much better than he smells. I expected him to taste like powder or maybe salt."

"I think Neal's found a new friend," Crystal says, still cradling a sleeping Gideon.

"Indeed," Killian agrees. "A friend with a rather big mouth,"

"Who is no different from Zelena," the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin smirks.

"Zelena?" Mal asks in confusion.

"My half-sister, The Wicked Witch of the West," Regina explains.

"Wicked Witch…" Mal trails off, trying to remember something that she'd read. She slightly resembled Belle when she was thinking of something "Is she from a land called Oz?"

"How do you know that?" Belle asks.

"There was a book I found in the library; the one that told me about the different realms that existed, and Oz was one of them. Ben and I wanted to visit there, especially the City of Emeralds and meet this Wizard who rules it."

"Uhm, he's not around anymore," Emma says, biting her lip, her mind going back to Walsh and what happened to him.

"So, who runs the city now?" Mal asks.

"I think it might be Glinda, the good witch of the North, but I'm not sure," David says. "We've kind of lost track of what's happened in other realms."

"Including Auradon," the daughter of Maleficent says.

"Auradon? What's that?" Emma asks.

"You've never heard of Auradon?"

"Kid, I think there's a lot about you we don't know," the Saviour says. She conjures up a stack of papers and file folders, ready to do the ever-exciting job as the town sheriff, the paperwork.

"Well, I guess Auradon is an alternate realm from this one, where we have different versions of our parents, but about 20 years ago, King Adam and Queen Belle created The United States of Auradon, uniting all the kingdoms of the many heroes and heroines in fairy tales. It became a safe place where all the heroes could live out their happily ever afters and raise their children in peace."

"But you said that you were the daughter of Maleficent," Regina points out. "And no offence, but she's a villain, one of the worst out there, and villains don't usually get their happy endings."

"I am, and she is a villain. But I'm not from Auradon originally. You see a lot of us who came through the portal are from a place known as the Isle of the Lost. It's an island that was formed near Auradon and it's where all the villains were either brought back to life or merely imprisoned there. There's no magic and it's a place that usually gets the leftovers from the kingdom, which makes it pretty pathetic and poor."

"But if there's no magic there, how did you guys get here?" Snow asks.

"I'm getting to that. Almost a year ago, Ben… my former boyfriend was going to be crowned King of Auradon when he turned sixteen and one of his first proclamations was to bring the children of some of the villains to Auradon for a second chance and Auradon has magic, although they don't use it very often. His idea to rehabilitate us kind of worked, except my mom crashed Ben's coronation and with the help of my friends, the strength of evil is as good as none when stands before four hearts as one; we were able to turn her into a lizard, a small one because it was based on the size of love in her heart."

"And let me guess, she didn't have a lot of love," Crystal assumes.

"Exactly. Anyway, unfortunately with my friends and I getting our second chance, several other kids from the Isle became jealous and tried to take over Auradon… twice. It was the second time we'd battled them when we were all sucked into the portal. I think my rival was trying to send us to a different realm, she was experimenting with portals from what I gather from everything that happened. The problem is, we don't know why we ended up here,"

"I think that's because I was experimenting with portals on my end, and like a phone, you guys made the call and I guess we answered it," Crystal says. "The two ends connected and you ended up here.

"Putting it mildly," Mal says. "But that's pretty much the whole story."

"Now this rival of yours, was she the blue octopus that came through on your leg?" Killian asks.

"Yes, her name is Uma, she's the daughter of Ursula, she's the whole reason behind all of this mess. She kidnapped Ben to lure me into battle and I fell for it and now… We're all here."

"It's going to be okay Mal," Emma says, putting a hand on the teen's shoulder. "We'll figure it out, but we do want you to help us make sure everyone is taken care of. Coming through portals is hard on the body and we need to ensure all your friends and even your rivals are okay."

"Aye lass," Killian agrees. "You mind giving us the full introduction to them? We'll need to document it."

"Do you mind if I go get some water first?" Mal asks, her throat has become dry due to all the talking she's done.

"Sure, the fountain's just down the hall," Regina says, directing her. "We'll be here when you get back."

"Thanks," the purple-haired girl says. She slowly walks down the hall, pulling back some of the hair that had landed in her face. She's realized that she's sweating a bit and feeling very overwhelmed. She's not exactly sure how she's going to reveal to these people of Storybrooke that they have kids… at least in this alternate world. How were they going to take it? Is there a version of her mother here in town? Where is this Lily person? Would the sorceress even believe her when she said anything? There is one other question that is bubbling in the back of the teenager's mind, one that she's unsure about whether she wants the answer to it? Would this Maleficent be a much better mother than the one Mal had on the Isle? The girl swallows as she walks towards the water fountain.

Suddenly, a hand comes from out of nowhere and pulls the daughter of Maleficent from sight. She feels her head being bashed against the nearest wall and a hand at the collar of her leather jacket. She gasps as she tries to see who grabbed her. Her eyes begin to glow green when she recognizes the turquoise braids and vengeful looking face.

"Miss me?" the voice hisses. Her spiked leather gloves wrapped around Mal's collar.

"Hardly," Mal snarls. "You're the one who got us into this mess in the first place."

"Nice of you to leave me on top of the clock tower," Uma hisses, still gripping Mal, her hands now approaching the throat of her rival.

"That was your decision," the purple-haired teen smirks.

"You left me no choice, you were going to drop me if I didn't let go…" Uma does her best to sound tough, but she was still shaking slightly from having been us so high. Heights had never been her things, which is why she avoided climbing the lookout on _The Lost Revenge_ or even _The Jolly Roger_.

Mal's strength is enhanced by something, she's unsure about what is empowering her... After all, magic was different here, she could tell and feel it. But it felt amazing, just like the arm wrestling for Ben's fate, Mal feels her strength coming back enough to remove herself from Uma's grasp. She squeezes her rival's hand very tightly, so much so that Uma grimaces in pain. Mal is then able to turn the tables, she pins the pirate captain against the same wall and lets out a snarl.

"Is this going to end right now?" Uma says, trying to remain brave, even though Mal is starting to cut off her airway. "In a hospital full of innocent people."

"Like you care about innocent people," Mal says in a low voice. "You weren't above putting Ben in the middle of this just to see who could rule the Isle and who was superior…"

Another dragon-like snarl escapes Mal's lips when suddenly she hears footsteps and voices coming down the hall.

"Mal…?"

The girl turns to see Evie, still dressed in her blue outfit rushing up towards her friend. There are several nurses and doctors pursuing the unknown girl in an attempt to give her a full examination.

"Evie!"

The two girls forget about everything else and simply embrace one another, their sisterly bond mended once again.

 _A/N: Please Review._ _What do you think should happen next? I'm open to ideas from the readers._


	32. Chapter 31: Friends and Family

Chapter 31: Friends and Family

"Evie, I'm so glad you're okay," Mal sighs in great relief, hugging her friend tightly.

"Mal, where are we? What happened? Where is everyone? Is Ben okay?" She then turns to see Uma, who is still slightly stunned from Mal practically attacking her a few moments ago. "Uma, what did you do?"

"We're in The Land Without Magic…"

"You mean that realm you talked about with Ben and Ariel,"

"Yeah… Wait, how did you know that?"

"Excuse me, Miss?" Dr. Whale says, coming up to the girls. "Now that you're awake, we have to give you a full medical examination."

"But…" Evie then looks at her best friend. However, the stylist does not miss a beat. "Who is the guy with the dye job? That does not suit your colour pallet at all."

"He's Dr. Whale," Mal explains.

"What's wrong with my hair?" Whale asks in confusion, running his hand through the spikey tips. While Regina did not particularly like his new style either, he was not used to random strangers completely shooting him down because of his appearance.

"It's a bleached dye job, with punk rock tips… it's…" Evie frowns and wrinkles her nose. "Not ideal for a man in your profession."

"What? So suddenly Lady Blue Hair is the fashion expert?" the doctor protests with a similar attitude.

"I happen to run the most successful fashion studio at Auradon Preparatory School and I have my own brand of clothing."

"Well great, congratulations, Lady Blue but in this hospital, I'm the head doctor of the successful Storybrooke General Hospital and I need you to come with me."

"I have a name you know, it's Evie," the daughter of the Evil Queen snaps.

"Well Evie, if you want to ever leave this hospital, I will have to give you a medical examination. Now would you please go back to your hospital room?"

Mal sighs, knowing that there was no way of avoiding this. "Come on E, I'll come with you, it won't take too long. I promise"

The blue-haired teen looks at her friend and then sighs knowing it was better to get this over with as soon as possible so she could get some answers to the questions buzzing around in her head. As Evie follows the doctor, Mal turns to finish confronting Uma, only to see that Shrimpy has slunk away; typical she was obviously not willing to face-off against two VKs instead of one… or it's possible that Mal's reaction had scared her away, which was unlikely.

The girls follow Dr. Whale back down the hall, past the Storybrooke group and into one of the hospital rooms. Evie's purse lay on the nightstand next to the bed and the covers had been clumped together indicating that the daughter of the Evil Queen had pushed them away to go and find her friends.

The bleach-haired doctor directs the fairest princess of them all to sit on the bed. He puts on rubber gloves and does the same examination he'd done before with Mal; checking all her vitals and searching for any other injuries. He does find a few scratches and a bump on the back of Evie's head, likely caused by coming out of the portal. He treats the scratches with antiseptic or whatever it was he called it, causing the wounds to sting just a little and for the teen to bite her lip in pain. Dr. Whale then had a nurse bring some ice for the back of the girl's head. Evie holds onto Mal's hand as the doctor takes a sample of her blood too, cringing the entire time. Once she's all finished, he leaves the two girls in peace.

Mal and Evie tightly embrace again, tears starting to come to their eyes.

"Evie," Mal weeps. "I-I'm so sorry about what happened…"

"Mal, it's not your fault," her best friend says comfortingly.

"No, it is my fault, I shouldn't have let Uma get to me like that; making me so angry that I couldn't protect my friends. I should have been there to help you and Ben but instead, you were thrown into the portal…"

"That was Harry's doing, not yours… whatever that stuff was that made the portal, it didn't hurt us. At least we're safe… Oh Gods, where's Carlos and Jay?"

"I don't know," she says. The two friends get up and begin to search the other hospital rooms for their friends, not noticing that Storybrooke's sheriff, deputy, mayor, and the resident young adult were about to go into the room to ask them questions.

It only takes a few minutes for the girls to find their male friends. The first two rooms only had War Frat pirates in them, but the third had the son of Jafar and the son of Cruella De Vil laying there asleep. A woman dressed in a nurse's uniform was checking both boys' vitals when she sees the two girls. The two boys lay in beds adjacent to one another, with a curtain that could separate the two if required.

"Are these two your friends?" the nurse asks when she notices the girls.

"Our best friends," Evie nods.

"Well, they seem to just be resting; a couple of scrapes and bruises, but nothing too serious."

"Thank you," Mal says politely, but she is also relieved that the two boys she saw as her brothers were unharmed by what had transpired.

"It's best to let them wake up on their own," the nurse advises them before leaving the room.

Suddenly, Dude comes trotting into the room, the bone Crystal had given him still in his mouth. He places the bone on the ground and then leaps up onto Carlos' hospital bed. He then begins licking his master's face. A smile begins to form on the teen's face as he slowly comes back to consciousness and he gently brushes the dog's tongue away.

"Cut it out Dude," he says. "It's the weekend, we can sleep in."

He then opens his brown eyes with a smile, Dude now sitting contently on his chest.

"Hey buddy," he says, scratching the dog behind the ears. It suddenly dawns on him that he's in a strange place and he sits up; a shocked look begins to form on his face. He looks around in confusion and starts to pant loudly. Dude is forced to jump from his master's chest to avoid being thrown to the floor from panic.

"What… what…"

"Hey Carlos, chill dude, everything is okay," the dog says calmly.

"Okay?! Dude, where the heck are we?! None of this is okay!"

"Carlos," Evie says in an equally calming voice. She goes over and sits on the edge of his hospital bed. The son of Cruella doesn't think twice before embracing her.

"Oh, thank gods Evie!" he breathes in relief. Mal slowly gets closer to her friend and he gets up and attacks her with a strong hug too. "Mal… Thank goodness you're both okay."

"They're fine Carl," Dude says, sitting and enjoying the show. He then drops to the floor and goes to work on chewing his bone again. "We're all fine."

"The battle on the beach, what happened? Where's Harry? Where's Ben? Where's Uma? Where's Jay?"

"Jay is right here," a voice says from behind them. The three friends turn to see Jay's dark brown eyes and his trademark smirk grinning over at them. Both Evie and Mal rush over and engulf their friend in a hug. The son of Jafar is a little shocked by their sudden contact but enjoys it.

"You're okay!" Evie says in relief.

"Evie, I'm fine, I'm Jay."

Mal rolls her eyes as they break apart. Carlos joins the group and gives his best friend a bro hug. The two of them ask the most obvious question.

"Where are we?"

The two male friends look at the female ones, knowing that the girls were the only ones who would be able to answer their question.

"We're in The Land Without Magic," Evie says.

"You mean that place that the… alternate Ariel talked about," Carlos asks.

"How do you guys know this?!" Mal demands.

The three friends look at each other in guilt and all their faces turn red. None of them really want to talk about the eavesdropping they did on Mal's night with Ben on the beach.

"We spied on you and Ben when you met the mermaid," Dude blurts out, having taken a break from his bone to speak the truth.

All three VKs glare at the dog, darn that truth gummy for making the loveable mutt so talkative!

"How can you love someone and hate them at the same time?" Carlos mutters to himself.

"You did what?!" Mal squeaks, trying to fight the urge to get angry at her friends.

"We… uh… kind of were watching you and Ben make up at the beach," Carlos winces, not happy from having to admit this.

"It was totally by accident," Jay lies.

Mal shoots him a look of disbelief and crosses her arms over her chest.

"Mal, we just wanted to make sure that you and Ben were happy again," Evie says honestly. She looks down at her shoes in guilt and begins picking at the blue leather on her gloves. "We're sorry we eavesdropped on your conversation. We really just wanted to check and then we'd leave you guys in privacy… it's just that… Ariel showed up and we wanted to know what was happening."

The daughter of Maleficent bites her lips for a long moment, trying to keep any anger she might have in check. She takes a deep breath, grinds her teeth several times before looking at her friends in disappointment. While she was pretty upset that they'd been spying on her… she knew deep down they had meant well and just wanted what's best for her. It seemed rather pointless as she and Ben ended up breaking up anyway.

"We're really sorry Mal," Carlos says.

"I'm not," Dude states.

"Dude! For the love of all that is good and pure, please stop talking…" Mal hisses. The dog then goes back to chewing on his bone. She then turns back to her friends.

"While I'm not happy about it…" After a long pause and a few more deep breathes, she forces a smile on her face. "I still forgive you guys."

"We were just watching out for you and Ben," Jay says.

"It's fine, let's just put this behind us," the daughter of Maleficent says. "We've got much bigger problems to deal with."

Every one of the VKs nod in agreement.

"So where in The Land Without Magic are we?" Carlos asks. The three friends turn to Mal, knowing that it was likely that only she would know the answer.

"A town called Storybrooke," she says, brushing a lock of purple hair from her face.

"Wait, didn't Ariel mention that place as the home of Ben's… other mom?" Evie asks.

"Yeah, we're in the place where our alternate parents live…" she says.

"Not all of them," a voice answers from the doorway. The four friends look up to see a group of strangers standing in the hospital room... at least strangers to Jay, Evie, and Carlos. The one who had spoken wears a jean jacket and had her brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. There was a blonde woman with hazel eyes and wore a white sweater under a red leather jacket, and next to her there was a man with vivid blue eyes and wears a dark leather outfit; his arm is wrapped firmly around the blonde woman's torso, almost protectively. A woman with brown eyes and dark black hair that now fell in loose curls around her shoulders begins staring almost hypnotically at one of the girls of the group. There was something about her that seemed familiar, the two even had matching eyes and wavy looking hair.

The entire group were just starting to may connections and theories to whom these kids from Auradon might belong to in this world. They already knew Mal was the daughter of Maleficent; the boy with the white and black hair could possibly be Cruella's son; this made Emma slightly nervous, thinking about what she'd done to protect her son and darken her heart. The boy with darker skin… he could be Aladdin and Jasmine's son for all they knew, but it Regina had been watching the group the closest. As the teenagers reunited, the group from Storybrooke were watching from the door and Regina was noticing the way the girl with blue hair had smiled, it almost seemed too familiar to her. The mayor of Storybrooke also noticed that the girl carried an apple-themed purse and wore other apple-themed accessories. She has a hunch in the back of her mind of whose daughter the girl might be and while it made her nervous, she had to have it confirmed.

"What do you mean?" Jay asks.

"What I mean is, not all of your… alternate parents, as Mal put it, are here in town. Only a few are…"

"Who are these guys?" Carlos asks, wanting introductions first and then more information about the alternative parents.

"I'm Crystal Miller," the girl in the ponytail says softly. Dude goes over and sits at the girl's feet; she leans down and scratches him behind the ears. "The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin."

"Rumple-who and what now?" Jay says in disbelief. "Who's he?"

"I think it's better than we keep you at a need to know basis about my dad right now," she says, biting her lip in embarrassment.

"I'm Emma Swan," the Saviour introduces herself. "I'm the sheriff of Storybrooke and the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming."

"But I thought Whitney and Simon were the White children," Jay states.

"In this world, they did have two kids, just many years apart," Mal explains. "Emma and baby Neal."

"Neal is a cute kid," Dude chimes in. "He likes dogs a lot. He stinks a little bit though."

"I'm sure if he could talk, he'd say the same thing about you," Crystal says to the mutt.

"Who's the guy in the eyeliner?" Evie asks, noticing the man's makeup addition, which made his very blue eyes stand out even more.

Regina snickers as Killian flushes bright red again. "Is this all you people seem to notice about me?" he hisses to his wife. "I'm Killian Jones lass, also known as Captain Hook." He then presents the group with his shiny metal tool.

The colour drains from Evie's face as she realizes which villain she'd just insulted. "I'm so sorry about the eyeliner comment," she says quickly.

Killian gives the girl a reassuring smile. "Don't worry Love, you're not the first one to point it out." He shoots a look at Regina.

"And I'm Regina Mills… I am… was known as The Evil Queen."

Again, the colour drains from Evie's face and her heart seems to stop completely. She lets out a strangled gasp of surprise. Jay and Carlos' mouths hang open in utter shock; they look at Regina and then at Evie. If they looked, they could definitely see a resemblance between the two royals… it was almost uncanny at some point. Evie feels her eyes fill with tears as she bites her lip, trying to breathe through the shock her body was going through. Her hands shake so much that Mal gently puts her hands over her friend's to try and calm her. The two women lock eyes for a moment and even before the girl opens her mouth to speak, Regina already knew:

"Hello… Mother."

 _A/N: Please review, no one seems to like pirates with eyelin_


	33. Chapter 32: The Family of Evie

Chapter 32: The Family of Evie

Regina steps back in utter shock. Her eyes drink in the blue-haired girl's appearance; she was very beautiful, her brown eyes looking at her "alternate" mother. Neither individual knew what to think or how to react… how would you respond? If her hair was black like hers, she truly could be the perfect likeness to the formerly Evil Queen. Evie…

Evie is equally stunned into silence. She feels uncertainty beginning to bubble up inside of her stomach. Unlike most of her friends, Evie had been given lots of attention from her mother growing up. However, that attention came at a cost because the Evil Queen had instilled her daughter with a large sense of vanity and selfishness when she was young, she always criticized her daughter's appearance and set high standards for her when it came to finding a prince for herself. Evie knew that her mother likely now despised her for turning to the side of good, most likely dating the son of a dwarf, and becoming a great success in the fashion industry, but she still longed for her mother's full approval. This "mother" seems different. Her eyes reflect something much deeper than the usual shallowness and vanity that her real mother expresses. Evie can see hurt in Regina's eyes; she's probably faced as many hardships as all the VKs have, but she didn't seem evil in the slightest. She seems to have let go of whatever held her real mother back.

Suddenly, Regina leaves the room in a hurry.

"Regina!" Emma calls out to her. She's about to go after her friend when Killian holds her arm gently.

"Give her some time Love," the pirate says quietly.

Evie swallows a large lump in her throat, feeling immediate rejection and tears reach the surface of her eyes. She lets her mouth hang open a little bit and her mind becomes a whirlwind of questions. Why did she run away like that? What did I do wrong? Was it the way I'm dressed?

Everyone can see the hurt look on Evie's face. Mal puts her arms around her friend, giving her a hug, but the blue-haired girl stands neutral, not willing to embrace her friend back.

"Evie…" Emma says. "Don't take it to heart… it's… it's just…" Even the Saviour couldn't understand her friend's reaction. Why would anyone run away from their child? Even if that child was completely unknown to them until this point in time.

"It's okay, we're used to that kind of rejection," Mal mutters.

"I don't think it's rejection…" Crystal says. She grabs Evie's hand.

"Where are you going?" Emma asks.

"We're going to find the queen," the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin says. She turns to the other VKs, "You guys mind just hanging out here for a few minutes?"

"Crystal wait…" Killian begins.

She then teleports herself, Emma, and Evie away in a puff of purple smoke.

"Bloody hell Crystal…!" the pirate hisses in annoyance. "Just like her reptile of a father."

"Where did they go?" Mal asks with concern.

"To find your friend's mother," he answers.

…

The three women reappear on Main Street of Storybrooke. Evie's eyes go wide at the quaint little town now surrounding her. It looks very peaceful and pretty; with brightly painted buildings, shop windows filled with many interesting items, including clothes, and nice-looking, friendly people. A man walking his Dalmatian dog walks up to the three of them. He has bright orange hair that was receding towards the back of his head and he wore round looking glasses over his eyes that squinted slightly when he smiled. He had on a business suit and tie, which was not the greatest colour or pattern according to the fashion designer. Despite his bland fashion choices, Evie got a friendly and calm vibe from this man, he seemed to be very approachable.

"Hello Emma, Hello Crystal," he says politely. His blue eyes then go to the face he did not recognize. "And who might you be?" He offers his hand to her politely.

"I'm Evie," the girl says, returning the handshake.

"Dr. Archibald Hopper, but most people call me Archie."

Pongo the dog begins sniffing at Evie's feet and she leans down to pet him.

"This is Pongo," the doctor says. The Dalmatian licks Evie's face and his tail wags in excitement at his new friend. The blue-haired teenager smiles and lets out a laugh. "Are you one of the children who came through the portal with that dragon?"

The teenager nods.

"Well, I'm glad that you are okay and welcome to Storybrooke. If you ever need someone to talk to, my door is always open." He then hands the girl a business card. Evie discovers that the man is a psychiatrist… whatever that was. He then tugs on his dog's leash. "Come along, Pongo."

"Wait for a second, Archie," Crystal says, stopping him. "Did you see Regina anywhere?"

"Uh yes, in fact, I saw her a few minutes ago, she was heading towards the woods. I said hello to her, but she didn't respond. I wonder what has her so upset?"

Both Crystal and Emma understood what this meant. Whenever Regina was upset, she'd go to the woods, where her beloved Robin once resided. It was her happy place, a quiet place to reflect, and gave her happy memories of her one true love. It was the same thing for Emma; whenever she was upset or had to go to think she went to the docks where she and her pirate seemed to be drawn to. Patterns of lovers one could expect.

"She just learned something she didn't expect," Emma mutters.

"Anyways, I must get back to the office. Nice to meet you, Evie."

"You too," the teenager says, waving politely.

"Crystal, do you think you can find Regina?" Emma asks, getting back to the task at hand.

"If she's unleashed any magic like she usually does when she's angry or upset, it won't be hard."

The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin's eyes glaze over and her blue eyes glow ever so slightly. She begins to walk forward as if in a trance, searching for any signs of the Evil Queen's energy.

Both Evie and Emma follow in behind, and the teenager turns to the sheriff for an explanation as to why they were following Crystal-like she is suddenly a tracking dog.

"Crystal has this gift to be able to see and detect a person's energy and heartbeat," Emma explains as the trio hurry through town, towards the surrounding woods. "She knows who you are before you can even introduce yourself. She can tell if you're a hero or a villain, brave or a coward, what kind of magic you have etc.…"

"It sounds a little violating," Evie says.

"Believe me, it's not picnic or me either," Crystal calls back to them. "At least I can turn it on and off."

"It's not really a bad thing, it helps when it comes to tracking and to see whether someone is a threat or not. It also helps to know if someone has their heart in their chest or not."

The daughter of the Evil Queen looks on rather confused. She raises her eyebrow at Emma Swan as they continue to travel further into the forest. Evie struggles to keep up because the boots she's wearing are not great for hiking.

"How can someone live without their heart in their chest?" she asks.

"It's kind of hard to explain, but there's a certain kind of magic that a lot of us possess where we're able to remove a person's heart from their chest without killing them. It's often used to control a person and force them to do things.

"Sounds awful."

"It is…" Emma agrees, not mentioning that she did the exact same thing as the Dark One. "It's best just left to the imagination."

"Arriving at destination, paging the Evil Queen on the left…" Crystal suddenly says. She points forward to see Regina leaning against an old wishing well made of thick, white stone. There are burning holes in some of the trees, which was how the daughter of the Dark One was able to find her so quickly.

Evie freezes in place, unsure about whether she should go any farther. She becomes afraid of her "other" mother after seeing the black holes burned through the surrounding trees.

"Let me go talk to her," Emma says.

The blonde slowly begins to approach Regina, hesitant to do so but decides to risk it.

…

The formerly Evil Queen is leaning over the edge of the well, staring down into its darkness and letting her tears fall quietly. There's a heavy ache in her chest, one of so much pain that she wants to rip her heart out and bury it, just like she'd done when she'd been forced to separate from Henry. She wishes beyond everything that Robin was here to wrap his arms around her, comfort her and tell her that she was going to be okay… She wished that she could have him back.

"Regina…" she hears behind her.

The dark-haired woman turns around, only to glare at the pregnant blonde.

"Leave me alone Emma," she snarls darkly, wiping some tears away to compose herself

"Regina, what's wrong?"

"Nothing, you wouldn't understand… like you always do."

"You ran away from the person who is your daughter."

"She's not my daughter!" Regina hisses, grinding her teeth together to fight the pain inside herself. "I don't have a daughter… I have a son."

" **We** have a son, a son who might have his own child by now…"

From far behind, Crystal explains the Henry mother situation to Evie.

This statement from the Saviour just leads to another round of sobbing from the Evil Queen. She clings to the edge of the wall so hard, its as if she was going to tear a large chunk of the stone out.

"Regina just talk to me…"

"You wouldn't understand, you're carrying the reason I'm so angry."

It's then that Emma understood… Regina had her regrets of preventing herself from ever having children. Sure, this did allow her to adopt Henry and give him the future Emma knew she could never give to him while she was in prison, but she knew that the Evil Queen regretted her decision more and more.

She had watched her former enemy, Snow White gave birth to two children over the course of two curses, Aurora, Ashley, who had been pregnant for 28 years, her half-sister Zelena, Belle, and with Emma now pregnant… it had all become too much to hold her pain in any longer. Regina hated herself for being manipulated by her mother into drinking that sterilizing potion, thinking that she'd never want to have children. It was her final regret that still haunted her so many years later. While she was given a beautiful son in Henry and was able to watch him grow up, he was gone now, off to find his own story. Even when she was able to become a second mother to Robin's child, Roland… it just was never the same as having a child of her own and loving them as such. Her heart aches in her chest as she continues to cry. The pain is indescribable as she slowly slides down to sit on the ground, with her back to the well, all curled up to comfort herself.

She stares out into the woods, her mind full of thoughts… And now she's learned that in another universe there is a version of herself who was smart enough to avoid the temptations of her mother and produce a beautiful girl… Evie…

Regina could've had a girl like her, dressed her up in all the prettiest outfits, spend days at the spa together getting manicures and pedicures, talk about boys, help her get ready for the prom… she lost out on so much.

Her eyes find the timid face of Evie peering out from behind a tree. The Evil Queen can see the hurt in her daughter's eyes and she immediately wants to comfort her, tell her she was sorry for running away like that. She's hesitant to move, afraid of being rejected by the daughter that was not hers.

Emma sits down next to the mayor of Storybrooke but says nothing for a long time. She can't imagine what her friend must be feeling right now, so she just becomes that shoulder to lean on. She can feel Regina's body shake with sobs. The Saviour knew she had everything that Regina wanted, a true love, a family, a child to call her own. It just didn't seem fair and she now wished that she could turn back time and give her friend what she wanted.

"You can be a mom again…" Emma whispers quietly. "I think right now she needs one more than ever. In fact, all of those kids do. She is your kid after all…"

Regina sighs heavily and stands up, trying to compose herself. "Do you think she'll forgive me for running off?"

"If you're honest about why I think she will," Emma says, standing up too.

Regina then takes slow steps towards where Crystal and Evie are waiting.

 _My daughter… my daughter…_ echoes in her head. Regina pushes some dark ringlets from her face and then stands to face Evie.

The blue-haired teen takes a step back, slightly fearful of what the Evil Queen was going to say.

"I… I think we started off on the wrong foot," she says. "I'm sorry for running away like that Evie, it's just that seeing you brought back some ghosts from my past that I didn't want to deal with in front of you and your friends. I hope you can forgive me and we can start over. Is that okay with you?"

Evie swallows, feeling a little relief that her alternate mother was wanting to try again, and it was not her fault for upsetting the Evil Queen. "I'd like that," she says in a quiet voice.

Regina extends her hand. "Hello, I'm Regina Mills."

"Evie… Mills, I guess" the teen says with a small smirk on her face.

This causes both mother and daughter to smile at one another. Both Emma and Crystal sigh in relief. If this is how all the parent-child meetings were going to go, they were going to need onion rings and a lot of hot chocolate from _Granny's_.

"She definitely had your eyes, Regina," Crystal jokes. "This apple did not fall far from the tree that's for sure." Evie giggles slightly, the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin winks as Regina rolls her eyes in annoyance once again.

…

Mal, Killian, Jay, and Carlos are all still sitting in the hospital room when the four people reappear. None of them really spoke to one another except when Mal asked where Crystal might've taken Evie, to which the pirate had no response. Whale did come in to do check-ups on the boys and then left them in awkward silence.

Hook is immediately on his feet and embraces his wife tightly. He checks to see if she's okay.

"I'm fine Killian,"

"I'm just worried about the baby."

"The baby is fine," Emma says, rolling her eyes. She knew Killian was nervous about becoming a father and was becoming way too overprotective of her.

He then shoots Crystal with an angry look.

"Don't ever do that again! You really do have the crocodile in your blood."

"Compare me to my dad again and I'll put that hook where the sun doesn't shine," Crystal snaps back, crossing her arms. "Besides, it worked didn't it?"

Both Evie and Regina look at each other and smile. The daughter of the Evil Queen then embraces her friends.

"Well, now that this has been settled, can we please move on to the other children?" Killian asks.

"I hope not all parent-child meetings go like this," Emma says.

"Well then, I wonder how this next one is going to go. Brace yourself, Captain," Jay says. "Because you've got a son too."

"Bloody hell!"

 _A/N: Here's a nice long chapter for all you Regina and Evie fans. Hope you are satisfied. If you'd like me to add something to this meeting, just let me know. There was a SwanQueen friendship moment. Not the best family meeting of all time. The original title of this chapter was either The Side of Evie or The Family of Evil. If one of you guys prefers the other titles, let me know._


	34. Chapter 33: Members of Darkness

Chapter 33: Members of Darkness

It was Killian's turn to sit in silence, however, unlike Regina, he doesn't disappear into the town or down to the docks. He sits in a nearby chair of Jay and Carlos's hospital room, now completely in a trance. Emma sits down on the armrest next to her husband, wrapping her arms around him tightly. She knew that the prospect of becoming a father was scary to him; it was scary to her as well. Neither of them had done the diapers, the late-night feedings, and the tantrums, but they both had their family and friends there, many of whom have been through those stages or are going through them right now, the former Evil Queen and Emma's own mother being just a few of them. Yes, it did scare her that she was going to be a mother all over again, even though she hadn't had the courage to really do it the first time… mostly due to the fact that she was in prison when she'd had Henry. Additionally, both her and Killian had not exactly had the best parenting examples set for them; his mother died not long after he was born and his father selling his sons into slavery to escape the law and his own sins; her parents being forced to put her through the wardrobe to protect her from the dark curse and unintentionally forcing her to grow up in the foster system. But she and Killian were definitely going to be different and they were overjoyed that this miracle is the next step in their happy beginning; this baby was going to born to parents who were true love and would care for him or her with all their hearts. But for her hook-handed husband to learn that he already had children… it was a lot to take in. Regina turns to Jay for confirmation.

"Are you sure?" she asks. "I mean I knew that Captain Hook slept around a lot,"

"Regina!" Emma hisses not exactly pleased with her friend bringing up her husband's past with women. Additionally, there were still teenagers in the room, not all of them were adults.

"It's true," Evie says.

"He's actually got, three kids…" Carlos admits, wincing when he sees the colour drain from Captain Hook's face.

"All from the same woman?" Regina inquires further.

"Regina!" Emma snaps again.

"Emma, I'm sorry but the version of Hook we left in the other realm with Henry had a daughter; so why would another version not have more? You know Killian wasn't always devoted to one woman."

"He spent almost 200 years trying to kill my father because he killed Milah," Crystal points out, raising an eyebrow.

"Wait, what?" Mal asks, very confused.

"Your dad has killed?" Carlos asks, looking even more shocked.

Crystal sighs. "Let's just put it this way, none of us in this room are saints… if I can assume that you guys have done some stuff you're not proud of either."

"But we've never… killed anyone," Evie says in disbelief.

All the VKs are shocked by the realization that this town is not as wholesome and quiet as they once thought.

"And be glad that you haven't," Crystal sighs. "Everyone has a dark side and sometimes… that darkness becomes so overwhelming that you do something that you cannot take back."

Evie takes a step away from her mother. She thought this version of her mother was better; more loving and less selfish, but now with the mention of taking someone's life, she's now more afraid of Regina than ever. Everyone can see the hurt on the Evil Queen's face as her daughter backs away from her, towards her friends, and this time out of fear.

"Emma, even you?" Carlos asks.

This is a gut punch to Emma and she swallows a very large lump in her throat. Her hands begin to shake ever so slightly, facing the son of the woman she killed. Granted, the woman he calls his mother was probably better than the one she and her family had faced. The puppy-hater was a sociopath who had no redeeming qualities of any kind; she was sadistic, cold-hearted, selfish, cowardly, and cruel in every sense of the word. This meant that it would be impossible for the woman to have a happy ending and everyone who had met her knew it. Emma had done it to save her own son, darkening her heart in the process, but she still felt some remorse for doing so, even after the sadistic witch tried to push her and Robin into The River of Lost Souls in the Underworld. It was wrong to have killed her, but now she feels even worse. Here's this kid, the son of Cruella De Vil and he's watching as his friends are slowly discovering who their parents are in this realm, and his mother was gone, killed by the Saviour's magic. She can't think of anything to say as she tightly grips Killian's shoulders.

"Yeah, Kid, I have…" she says quietly, trying to avoid the kid's gaze.

"Life isn't all rainbows and unicorns guys," Crystal says bluntly. She looks over at Evie: "Your mother poisoned a princess because she was jealous of her good looks." She then turns to the boys. Unlike the others from Storybrooke, Crystal knew whose parents raised these kids. She looks at Carlos. "Your mommy dearest was no animal rights activist. She wanted to murder a lot of puppies just to have a fur coat made from them." Emma swallows some bile coming up her throat, having her theory confirmed in front of everyone. She feels overwhelming guilt and avoids Carlos's gaze. However, the son of Cruella is too busy looking at the blunt girl speaking. She looks at Jay. "Your daddy wanted to take over Agrabah, not caring how many innocent people he hurt while doing so and even became an evil Genie to do so."

"Wait, you're Jafar's kid?" Regina asks.

Jay just nods, still glaring at Crystal. This proves the group's theory of him being Aladdin and Jasmine's kid right up.

The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin turns to the daughter of Maleficent. "And your mom cursed a tiny baby to die by pricking her finger on a spinning wheel. All because she didn't get invited to a baptism. And didn't you say she ruined your boyfriend's coronation and tried to take over the kingdom?"

The purple-haired teen's eyes glow green. "It wasn't just… It was more complicated than that…"

"Exactly," Crystal points out, happy that Mal just made her point. "It always is, there are always reasons behind everything and it's always, ALWAYS more complicated than you think. So, take the time to think about who you have come from before you judge us so harshly for our pasts."

The room goes into awkward silence territory for a long time. No one really looks at one another, almost scared to admit that what the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin was correct, but now the question about whether the VKs could trust the people from Storybrooke… the people who were supposed to be their parents, and in some cases, better parents.

It is Killian who is the first to speak.

"Their names…" he says.

"What?" Mal asks.

"What are my children's names?" he says quietly.

There is another long silence before anyone answers him.

"Well, there is Harriet, she'd be your eldest daughter…" Evie says.

"Followed by Harry, your son," Carlos adds.

"And your youngest daughter, CJ," Mal finishes.

"CJ?" Emma asks in confusion.

"It's short of Calista Jane," Jay explains. "She actually, looks a lot like you Emma."

"Me?"

"Yeah, she has blonde hair like you," Mal says. "But different eye colour, and she's also a lot more annoying than you."

"She does have an affinity for red though," Evie points out the similarity in the blondes' fashion choices. "But she does wear crocodile skin boots too."

"That is so cruel," Crystal mutters under her breath. "Although my Dad's skin would have made a wonderful purse."

"Aye," Killian smirks.

Killian looks at Emma for a long moment and then forces himself to grin cheekily. "Perhaps in some realm, I did remember that damned bar wench I kissed."

Emma does her best not to smile and smacks him on the back of the head playfully. The little exchange between the couple is completely lost to the rest of the group.

"But only Harry came through the portal with us," Evie adds. "He's Uma's first mate and is the reason Ben and I were pushed through here in the first place."

"There's also something you should know about him…" Mal says.

"And what might that be…?" A voice chuckles. Suddenly, the group hears laughing from the doorway.

Everyone turns to see Harry Hook, with his precious tool glinting in the hospital light. He throws three people to the floor in front of them; Ben, Doug, and Jane, all of whom are confused, and likely still injured. Then, the son of Captain Hooke leans in the door, grinning smugly and removes a sword from his belt.

"Ready to pick up where we left off?" he asks.

 _A/N: Please Review_


	35. Chapter 34: Number One Troublemaker

Chapter 34: Number One Troublemaker

"Ben!" Mal shrieks.

"Doug!" Evie gasps.

"Jane!" Carlos yells.

All three VKs try to reach their AK counterparts, only to be stopped by Harry's blade. He points them at his foes and grins with much excitement. His eyes widen with much-anticipated glee being finally able to get his revenge for Uma. If he did this, then maybe, she'd finally notice him and see him as more than just a first-mate. Those from Storybrooke who did not know the son of Captain Hook could tell that there is something off about him; a grinning unbalance that left most people shifting uncomfortably where they stood. The teen pirate seems to thrive on violence and anything that involved treachery.

"Uh, uh, uh," Harry tsks at them, wiggling his hook in the air. He uses his blade to block their path and has them stepping back in fear. "Yer not gettin' to them that easy."

Mal's eyes begin to glow again. She's ready to take on her ex in order to protect her friends.

"From the nights end to the break of day,

Make this monster go away…" she shouts, raising her hand in the air.

However, much like before, nothing happens for the daughter of Maleficent in terms of her powers.

Harry Hook does flinch, expecting to be hit by some kind of magic, but when nothing happens he gives the purple-haired teen a toothy smile. "Looks like yer magic doesn't work here love," he says with almost a laugh, clearly pleased by this new development. "It evens the playing field doesn't it?"

"Get lost, Harry!" Evie barks. She's scanning the room to look for anything to use as a weapon. She had to help Mal, Jay, and Carlos protect their friends.

"Or what, Blue Belle?" he taunts her.

"Or else you'll have to deal with us," Crystal interjects. Her hands become purple in anticipation for a fight. She glares at him with great determination. Emma and Regina follow suit with their hands lighting up to help defend the kids if they need to.

Harry pauses to gaze at this girl. He finally notices that there are other people in the room beside Mal, Evie, Carlos, and Jay, who are his main targets for battle. He especially wants to get even with Jay for throwing his hook in the water the last time they battled. But this new girl takes him off guard slightly. For a moment, all his thoughts about Uma vanish, even the thoughts of revenge or harming the kids from Auradon leave his head. He drinks in her looks with much interest. Her fierce blue eyes are quite intriguing to him along her long hair pulled up in a ponytail, and heart-shaped face which he finds alluring, and even the purple light radiating from her hands seemed to enhance her features just a little bit. He licks his lips while smiling, his bright blue eyes never leaving her face, which kind of creeps the other party out.

"Well aren't you a right pretty lass," he purrs, dragging his hook along the doorframe as if the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin will find this attractive.

"Is he seriously trying to hit on you while he's threatening other peoples' lives?" Emma asks

"I've had weirder ways of being hit on; one guy tried to mug me and then asked me to go out with him with the money he was stealing from me," Crystal sighs, knowing that she tended to attract weirdos no matter where she went.

While Crystal did find this pirate is not unattractive, she can see he is unbalanced; he obviously thrives on doing evil and spreading chaos. She could definitely see the resemblance to Killian, his would-be father; the sleek black hair, the very vivid and captivating blue eyes, his chiselled chin, and again, an affinity for eyeliner. What is it with pirates and eyeliner? Of she can remember correctly, Jack Sparrow also wore the makeup component in the movies; was it meant to make them look more attractive. She realizes that she's staring at him a lot longer than she'd anticipated. She glares at him again and looks down at his hostages, all of whom seem to be frightened and/or wounded.

Harry changes his gaze from Crystal to Emma and the grin on his face fades.

"CJ?" he questions, mostly to himself.

Emma raises her eyebrow in equal confusion. Her hands begin glowing white with the intention of protecting everyone.

"What do you want Harry?" Jay asks, pounding his fist against his hand in anticipation of a fight.

The sinister-looking VK looks at his enemies again, but this time he's almost at a loss for what to say. The appearance of these new powerful pawns in the game have caught him off guard.

"Oh… right. Ah figured it was a good idea to get these goodie-goodies out of the way so now there's nothing holdin' ye back from a good fight."

"Leave them alone Harry," Mal warns. "They have nothing to do with this let them go or..."

"Or what? Ye gonna tell me I'm a naughty boy?" He then turns to Crystal. "Or should that be yer job?"

Crystal clenches her hands, trying to fight the urge to throw this guy through the nearest wall. The fact that he was hitting on her made her skin crawl just a little bit too.

"Did Uma tell you to do this?" Carlos asks.

"Na, I decided that since nothing went according te plan, I'd improvise, mak' it more fun fur me…"

"Wow, I'm impressed you were able to come up with that all by yourself. You're such a big boy…" Mal taunts back.

"Why ye…" Harry snaps, he picks up his lowered blade, preparing to strike his ex-girlfriend in anger.

Killian cuts in before anyone else can react, he uses his cutlass and blocks the boy's attack against Mal. The daughter of Maleficent lets out a small shriek of fright because of almost being impaled by Harry. The real Captain Hook then engages Harry in a sword proper fight. Their swords continue to clash even after Killian stepped in, but the teenager is impressed by the level of skill displayed by this newcomer.

"Finally, a challenge," he grins again, but Killian is having none of it. He swings his sword against the boy's cutlass.

Regina and Crystal have to duck out of the way and Mal, Evie, and Carlos pull their partners out of the crossfire.

"Killian…!" Emma says, wanting to stop her husband, however, Regina holds her back so she doesn't get hurt either. "What the hell is he doing?"

"Discipline I think," the mayor of Storybrooke says.

The two pirates make their way out into the hall, much to the dismay of a few nurses who happen to be nearby. There are screams ad the continuous slashing of swords as the unknowing father and son continue to battle one another. The group from Storybrooke and the Isle swallow very hard, knowing that this is not the best place for a fight. Most people came to this place to heal from injuries, not gain them. The hostages from Auradon are very shaken and try to stand up cautiously, still afraid that Harry might come back for them. Jane is shaking hard, Ben is only half-conscious of what was happening, and Doug is trying to analyze the situation to the best of his abilities.

"GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!" Whale's voice erupts with anger. "YOU'RE ENDANGERING MY PATIENTS! I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL…"

The clanging of swords interrupts the doctor's tirade and he gives off a girlish shriek to avoid being hit by one of the weapons. Crystal and Regina can't help but snicker at the doctor's sudden cowardice and the high-pitched scream.

Killian and Harry continue down the hall, while nearby patrons rush for cover or come to investigate what was happening.

"We need to stop them," Emma says. "Before they hurt each other or someone else."

"I've got a better idea," Crystal grins to herself. She flicks her wrist and the duelling pirates vanish in a cloud of purple smoke.

"Where did you take them?" the Saviour asks, becoming a little frantic to where the daughter of the Dark One might have sent her husband.

But she doesn't answer, instead, she engulfs everyone in another puff of smoke and suddenly, they're down by the water, on the edge of the dock next to the harbour. The large ornate ship that belongs to Killian is just in front of them, its masts towering over and billowing in the breeze. The VKs and AKs shudder at the fact that they have just been teleported, an entirely new experience to all of them. But the VK side of the couples, rush to continue to help up their significant others from Auradon.

The sounds of swords striking each other are heard again and everyone looks down to see father and son still duelling one another.

"Where are we?" Carlos asks, holding Jane in his arms. He then hugs her tightly, happy that she was all right.

"The Jolly Roger," Crystal grins. "Now we've got the best seats in the house."

"The best seats for what?" Doug asks, trying to comprehend the entire situation.

"Family time," she smirks to herself, pointing to the pirates.

A/N: Please Review


	36. Chapter 35: Family Feud

Chapter 35: Family Feud

"I figured if they were going to fight, let them do it in the proper place," Crystal explains.

Emma smacks her friend on the shoulder in anger and Regina does not look particularly happy either.

"My husband's issues with his alternate son is not for your own personal entertainment."

"Oh, come on Emma, you have to admit, this is exciting."

"I swear, you're becoming more and more like your father every day," the blonde snarls. "Enjoying watching other people fight and hurt each other."

Crystal grinds her teeth at the remark. She loved Emma and Killian, a lot, they were her family; Emma was her surrogate sister and Killian was one of her most trusted friends, but every once and a while, she would get angry with them as they got angry with her. They always tended to exploit the one thing she hated about herself the most; that she was the daughter of the most hated and demonic man in all the realms. And she knew why they did this…

Everyone in Storybrooke knew that she loathed the fact that her father's darkness ran through her veins; in fact, she'd snap at anyone who mistakenly called her Crystal Gold instead of Crystal Miller. She hated that she was associated with such an evil man and how this relation him made her the person that she was; it was what defined the first sixteen years of her life and cost Lillian Miller, her life in the process. Her actions against her mother were the biggest regrets Crystal had and everyone knew that she fought every single day to control and suppress the evil inside her. It was never a pleasant experience when Crystal's soul leaned back into the darkness. It was a delicate balancing act for her; the power of her father's darkness and the intensity of her mother's love and light. It was also extremely painful, often causing physical strain on her body and when she couldn't hold it back any longer, it often expelled outwards in a destructive shockwave that was extremely powerful, but also very dangerous. She had no control over this ability and it often endangered the people she cared about most.

The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin understood why her friends and loved ones brought this up, it was meant to remind her of who she should be and that she needs to come back to the side of good again. She will admit that she had inherited her father's mischievous tendencies and sometimes impish nature, but most of the time, it was harmless fun. Except maybe this time.

"So, what should I do then?" Crystal asks. "Take the swords away or freeze them in their places?"

…

When Killian had leapt up and drawn his sword to protect Mal, he'd expected that he may end up duelling this boy, which was not something he wanted to do to his own son. Back when he was his old villainous self, sword-fighting would have been his solution to everything. He'd even challenged Rumpelstiltskin to duel back when the imp had been human and he begged for Killian to release his wife, whom he thought had been captured by pirates. The pirate thought that it was honourable for a man to fight for what he wanted. Anyone who refused, like the peasant Rumple had, would be labelled a coward, but he knew better now. With Emma's help, he'd learned that there were other ways to solve problems than just fighting, especially after she'd bested him when they fought for the compass by a dried-up lake. Not everything had to end in violence and now he only ever fought someone when he or she or it became a deadly threat to those he loved.

As he and Harry began to fight in the hospital, the pirate captain knew that they had to find a better place to do this, knowing about the people who were now in harm's way. Dr. Whale nearly had his head taken off when Harry swung his cutlass at a wide angle. Fortunately, either Regina or Crystal had understood the concern for those around the duelling pair because purple smoke soon engulfed the both of them and they reappeared on _The Jolly Roger_ , his precious ship. Harry had been more disoriented than his father had been, considering Killian was used to teleportation by now. The pirate captain had stopped, hoping that the relative moment of quiet would cause the teenager to rethink his actions. However, once Harry noticed that his opponent was still there, he leapt forward to attack again. With a heavy sigh, Killian engaged once again.

The two take various stances on the deck, their swords clashing in every direction. Killian had to admit, but he was impressed in his alternate son's swordsmanship. Clearly, he had learned well from his real father and must practice very often with this Uma person. However, the Storybrooke Captain Hook had one thing that Harry did not, experience. Over 200 years of fighting other pirates and his time in the navy had taught Killian every trick in the book and while he obviously was not going harm or even kill the boy, he had to find a way to end this battle soon.

"Yer pretty good old man," Harry sneers. "Ah didn't think I'd ever catch up wi' someone who is as gud as me."

"Such an ego will be your undoing lad," Killian warns. "Overconfidence in one's self will expose a great weakness."

But the teenager snorts with derision at this warning. "What weakness?"

He then lunges forward and makes a very wide swing at the captain's unguarded left side, but the adult is too quick and forces it away. The son of Captain Hook then goes for the right, but his "father" blocks, the swords clanging heavily, causing some nearby seagulls across the harbour to take flight in fear. Killian keeps his stance strong, knowing that the lad will not quit easily or quietly. The teenager had to be taken down a few pegs to get his chaotic behaviour under control.

The pirate notices out of the corner of his eyes that his wife, Regina, Crystal, Mal, Evie, Jay, Carlos, and the other prisoners that he never got the names of are on the edge of the dock overlooking the harbour. He can see that they are hurrying towards the ship and he knew Emma was going to insist that one of the observers use magic to intervene. Knowing this has to end now, Killian Jones remembers the faulty wooden board right next to the stairs. One that always creaked and caused anyone unlucky enough to step on it to lose their balance or even fall.

He changes his position, taking larger swings at the boy's left side in order to force him back towards the staircase. He becomes more aggressive in his slashes at the boy's cutlass and the captain can see the shock in Harry's eyes. The entire time they were duelling, the young teenager was in control and the one attacking, but now Killian was the one attacking, lunging forward which is throwing the lad off-balance and exposing his weakness to his "alternate" father. The two get closer to the board and Captain Hook begins speaking in a calm tone to Harry Hook.

"Your knowledge of fair swords play is…" he pauses every time their swords meet. "Impressive for a… Lad your age, but… you rely…too much on your own strength…It's not always about… the weapons you use… or… the strength of your attack… sometimes…"

Then Harry steps on the board, it creaks loudly and sinks into the deck, the teenager briefly looks down, which is all Killian needs to finish this. He stomps on the other end of the board, throwing the teenager off balance, he then reveals his hook to the boy, grabs the lad's cutlass, lifts it out of his hands and over the side into the water below. The son of Captain Hook falls backwards against the stairs and grunts in pain. The real Captain Hook then holds the tip of his sword against the boy's leather belt around his shoulder as to not to harm the boy but keep him in place.

"Sometimes, it's all about paying attention to your surroundings," Killian finishes.

Both of them are panting heavily after finishing this strenuous duel. Harry looks utterly stunned and slightly mortified that he was just bested in combat, but he's more shocked by what's on his opponent's left hand. His blue eyes go wide when he finally realizes who he'd been fighting the whole time. No wonder his swordsmanship was so polished and skilled… he was fighting his father!

Regina, Emma, Crystal, Mal, Carlos, Jay, and Evie finally reach the deck and enter from the gangplank. Emma immediately goes up to her husband to check him over, but he was perfectly fine as she'd expected. She then looks down at the poorly behaved teenager with sympathy, but also with disappointment.

"Guess you didn't need our help after all," the blonde says.

"Aye," Killian says, finally sheathing his cutlass. He then offers the boy his right hand to help him up.

Harry looks utterly stunned and confused. Normally, whenever he lost to his father, the cruel man would scream at him and tell him that fish fought better than him. In fact, if any of his children lost to their father at swords play, they'd be forced to clean out the worm and gutting station at the back of his shop. This humiliation was one of the many reasons that the son of Captain Hook had run off to become part of Uma's crew in the first place.

"Good show Lad," Killian says gently. "But perhaps you should think about who you are going to be duelling with before you start a fight."

 _A/N: Please review, it's the greatest form of love and support I can get as an author._


	37. Chapter 36: Parental Dysfunction

Chapter 36: Parental Dysfunction

"So, you're Harry's Dad then," Mal says, biting her lip hard. The group had now moved into awkward silence territory since the fight had ended.

"Right so Harry Hook meet Killian Jones, the significantly better father and role model for you, Killian meet your son, Harry, who seems to have a lot of daddy issues to work through," Crystal says sarcastically, with half a smirk on her face, also trying to avoid the awkward silence, like Mal.

Harry examines Killian up and down, his eyes often going back to the infamous hook on his left hand. The "alternate" father also inspects his son from head to toe, not particularly liking the way he was presenting himself. He definitely looked the role of a pirate; a black leather belt hanging over his shoulder, the boy wore a black Navy type hat, which had been turned sideways to make it unique. Harry had scooped up from the deck after it had fallen off during their fight, he also wore stained and ragged clothing under a red, short-sleeved leather pirate jacket, likely to emulate his father from the god-awful Walter Disney adaption that Swan and Henry had forced him to sit through. He also had a fake hook hanging from his belt, indicating he lived up to the name of Son of Captain Hook. Killian could see the resemblances between the two of them with the dark black hair and bright vivid blue eyes, which Emma had said she hoped that their baby had. It was like looking in a mirror, a mirror of the past and if Killian had grown up as a rebellious pirate on this Lost Isle, as the purple-haired lass had described.

"Looks like for the affinity for black leather skipped a generation," Regina adds.

"But the eyeliner stayed," Crystal laughs behind her hand. Killian shoots them both angry looks.

"Sorry, trying to ease the tension," the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin mutters as she steps away.

"Killian?" Harry says. "Me father's name was James…"

"Well, this…" Mal explains. "Is your father from another world, a father who is not a total jerk and actually managed to make something of his life."

"How do you mean there Mal?" Harry asks.

"Instead of being locked away on an Isle for so many years, stewing in his own hatred and self-loathing, this version of your father is heralded as a hero, is the deputy lawman of this town and is happily married."

The pirate teenager looks very surprised. His eyes go to the silver band on Killian's right hand, considering he had no left one. Emma then steps forward and stands next to her husband to meet the teenager's eyes. She too could see the resemblance, it was like a mini-Killian is standing in front of them. It's almost what she would have pictured what their son might've looked like as a teenager if he got both the pirate's eyes and hair. But above all else, the couple could see a kid… a lost kid, just like them, who had a lot of issues to work through and hid behind a façade of confidence and rebellious actions. He had a lot of anger issues, Killian could feel that during their sword fight, he uses his strong outward appearance to hide his weaknesses and his vulnerabilities, just like Emma had done with her emotional walls. It was possible that he did these things because he never gets any recognition from his family or friends and has no one to turn to. There was also an unbalance to his personality, which is off-putting to everyone around him. This was likely from being trapped on this Isle that Mal and her friends had mentioned, but everyone, especially Crystal, could tell that he had been hurt many times and was acting like all of them, looking for acceptance and comfort.

"You me mum then?" Harry asks.

Emma shifts uncomfortably and interlocks her fingers with Killian. She's not entirely ready to accept the fact that this is Killian's son and quite possibly, in another bizarre universe, he is hers too.

"I…I don't know… Harry… I don't know what kind of relationship your father had with your mother, but there's not a lot of evidence to support that."

"Well, my father said me mum ran off after CJ was born, at least I think that she's also CJ's mum. I remember a blonde woman living with us for nine months or so… Dad liked blondes. I know Harriet's mum was a bar wench that worked at _Ursula's Fish and Chips_ …"

"Okay, you know what?" Crystals grimaces. "This is probably a private conversation to have in a locked sound-proof room, but we've got some confused kids from Auradon wanting answers as well. Plus, Mal? I think Ben could use a good healing session, we also need to figure out how to get all of you back home, so maybe now is the time to go and help them."

Harry raises his eyebrows. "You find my parentage a bit uncomfortable do ye? Thought you'd like to know about my beginnings."

Crystal rolls her eyes, ignoring the fact that Harry is once again trying to hit on her.

"I'm a broken man Love, I got no support from me parents. I've had to make it on my own."

"God, it's like looking in a Killian and Emma mirror," Regina says in amazement. "If he is not your son, I'll eat my own poisoned apple."

"Oh please, you are not the only one with parent problems Hooky Jr. My dad is the Dark One, the evilest and powerful beings in all the realms of existence and he's also had children with three different women. I grew up not knowing who my father was and eventually learned he planned to eat my heart to gain back the power he'd lost for getting my mom pregnant. I ended up killing my mom in a freak accident because of the dark power he'd given me. Killian here lost his mother when he was young and was sold into slavery with his brother by his father, so the coward could escape the law. Regina's mother killed her fiancé in cold-blood because he rode horses and wasn't royalty, and then she forced her daughter to marry someone she didn't love. This forced her on a dark path for vengeance that led her to end up killing her father. Then this witch of a mother went on a killing spree in her quest for ultimate power. Emma here is nearly the same age as her parents because she was sent through a magical wardrobe to escape a curse that Regina cast, and she grew up without feeling any real parental love and affection for 28 years. One of her adopted families gave her back because they had their own kid. So, if you think that your story is the saddest, the most broken, most heart-wrenching, and the most messed up, you are sorely mistaken, buddy."

This shuts Harry up immediately and he steps back in surprise. In fact, all the VKs are silent while they process all this information. Those from Storybrooke are also rather quiet, considering Crystal just revealed some of the darkest parts of their past. It's true that their lives had not been perfect, in fact, most of them should have been put in therapy a long time ago. But at least three out of the four of them were not going to make their parents' mistakes. Regina had proven time and time again that she was a devoted mother to Henry, and had also become a mother figure to Roland, Robin Hood's son, and Crystal too. Killian had changed himself to become the best man that he could be, and he would never abandon Emma or their unborn child. While Crystal had yet to become a parent, which would probably not happen for a long time, she'd done her best to forgive her father for her mistakes and gained an even better family because of it. While Emma idolizes her parents and loves them deeply, she knew she was still going to have to learn to be a good parent to their child. Fortunately, both she and Killian were going to work through it together as a team… It was apart of their happy beginning, the opportunity to be parents…

And apparently, part of that opportunity wore eyeliner like his father, had abandonment issues like his potential mother, and had tried to kill them and his peers while in a hospital.

It's amazing how many family relationships began this way.

 _A/N: To whichever guest sent that awful review, sorry if I can't meet your standards. Just don't read it if you don't like it. If you'd like to give some constructive criticism, I'm all ears, but I am writing this story my way and I do what I choose as the author._


	38. Chapter 37: Emotional Tides

Chapter 37: Emotional Ties

Mal, Evie, and Carlos go back to their significant others, who sit on some of the nearby picnic tables at the entrance to the docks. Jay and Crystal follow closely behind and so do Emma and Hook. Harry remains on the deck of his father's ship, not really sure what to do next. His mind wants to go with the group, but he can tell that they don't really want him around, especially the girl with the ponytail. He doesn't understand why, but he finds her enchanting and like a real challenge. He could tell that she feels something too, although she won't admit it. He is a little shocked to learn that she actually ended up killing her mother and her father seems to be some kind of all-powerful being, but Harry liked a woman with mystery and some darkness thrown in there too.

Little did he know, that his situation mirrored his father's first encounter with his true love, Emma Swan; although as they climbed the beanstalk to retrieve a golden compass, the smug pirate had told her that she was "something of an open book" to him, while Harry had yet to take this "book" off the shelf and read the title.

"Jane," Carlos says, going to sit next to her. The daughter of Fairy Godmother sits with her head in her hands, battling a nasty headache that causes the blood in her brain and body to pound. It feels like the red fluid is pressing against her skin, trying to find a way out.

She looks up at Carlos with confused and frightened blue eyes. She is close to breaking out into tears. "Oh Carlos!" she whimpers quietly.

The Son of Cruella De Vil holds his girlfriend very close, rubbing circles on the small of her back as a way of comforting her. He can feel her shaking against his body as they hug tightly. He feels as if he's become her anchor, her rock of strength. It appears that the tough and brave personae she had put on at the beach earlier had faded, and the sensitive and vulnerable Jane is back. Inside, he did feel as scared as she did, but he did his best to hide it. He knew the whole reason she was so afraid is that they were sucked through a portal and deposited in a bizarre land filled with strangers who were meant to resemble their parents. He knows that Jane likes to be control of her surroundings, it's one of the reasons he likes her so much, but when things are beyond her comprehension and power, she becomes scared and shy again.

"It's okay Jane," he murmurs quietly. He repeats this over and over to allow her to calm down.

Mal reluctantly approaches Ben, who is lying on one of the seats of a separate picnic table from Jane's. His cuts, while medically treated, are very clearly prominent on his face and body, his clothes are still torn up and worst of all, his neck is black and blue from Uma's tentacles. Ben has Emma's red leather coat tucked under his head and he struggles to remain conscious. His head is also pounding from coming through the portal and the wounds he'd received from Gil and Uma are not helping matters either.

The daughter of Maleficent bites her lip very hard. So far, she'd been distracted enough with Uma, and family drama that she has not been forced to confront her feelings for the King of Auradon. Her mind flashes back to the pain she felt in her chest when Ben was forced to suspend her and the anger that filled her entire body to the point that she felt like she might explode. Her heart still aches heavily over what transpired between them… the feelings of betrayal and misery, very prominent in her mind.

Yet, despite how hurt she had been when they'd broken up, she'd still rushed to his rescue when Harry had captured Ben. She let her anger get the best of her and she became a dragon once Uma had tried to strangle him and she'd stayed by his side until the ambulance took him to the hospital. She feels torn between what she thinks she is feeling right now and what she must be feeling deep down inside. She loved Ben, they were true love, but it doesn't mean that they had to stay together forever, did it? Why was it so hard for her to choose whether to care about Ben or not? She is always drawn to him like a moth to a flame and she cares about him too much… it all feels like the biggest mess that she just can't seem to clean up.

"Mal?" Ben croaks out, opening his eye as one of them is swollen shut from Gil's beating.

She swallows. "I'm here Ben," she says softly.

Despite how sore his body is, the son of Belle and Beast/Adam raises his hand, he is reaching towards his true love. With much reluctance, Mal takes his hand gently and impulsively kisses it, something he would usually do to her. She fights back tears in her eyes and the lump in her throat seems to be suffocating her. Why is it so hard to say mad at him?

Crystal comes up next to the young couple and she can immediately sense the awkward tension between them. She remembers asking the purple-haired teenager if Ben was her boyfriend and she didn't really answer the question and instead distracted herself with her best friend, Evie's well-being. The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin knows what this hesitation meant; she'd been using it herself lately, avoiding the question of Mason Phelps and whether she still cared about him enough to go in search of him. The British boy had broken her heart, leaving her in a state of utter despair and chaos and which turned her magic into a very dangerous weapon too. She'd nearly hurt a lot of people because of those seismic waves she makes when she can't control her abilities. He'd dumped her over a text message and seemed to vanish completely from the world… including her own. She'd forced all these feeling deep down inside of herself, locking them in a box in order to focus on mending her relationship with her dad and protecting the town she now called home. While her loving family and great friends helped fill the void in her life, she knew very deep down that she still missed him. It was just so complicated, and she had no idea about whether she wanted Mason back in her life or even have the guts to go out and search for him.

She can see the hesitation in Mal's face, knowing that the couple must have also gone through something very recently, just before they came through the portal. What that was, she did not want to pry, but she knows that the two do appear to care deeply for one another and be concerned about each other's well-being; which seems to trump whatever difficulties they might be having.

Ben looks up at Crystal.

"Mal…" he says, becoming worked up in confusion. "Who's this? Where are we? What happened?"

"Hey, save your strength there," Crystal says quietly. She cannot stand to see this poor teen in such a terrible state, the dark bruises on his neck make her skin crawl. "Do you mind if I heal you?"

"Heal me?" Ben asks. "How?"

"Magic, Ben," Mal says. "This place has magic."

"What…" the king grimaces in pain when he tries to move and cannot say what he wants. He clenches Mal's hand tightly in his own. The daughter of Maleficent cannot stand to see him like this, she begins fighting back tears. She looks up at Crystal, despite the things she's recently learned about this young adult; that she has dark magic and that she killed her mother; she seems to be in much more control and calmer than she'd mentioned before, plus she knew more about magic than any of them would. The two girls lock eyes and make a connection again. Mal's green eyes plead to Crystal's blue ones to heal him. The teenager gives the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin a slight nod to seal the deal.

Crystal's hands begin to glow a purple, that looked lilac in colour. She brings them both closer to Ben, and Mal can feel the fear in his body. He tenses, immediately fearing what the magic might do, and the purple-haired teen is hesitant too.

"This won't hurt I promise," Crystal says gently.

She then waves her hands over the king's body, allowing the magic to heal the ailments and wounds to his body in the faint purple glow. Mal watches in amazement as the purple colouring around Ben's eye vanishes and it opens, allowing her to see his beautiful hazel-green eyes again. The cuts on his body shrink and seal themselves up and the bruises on his neck go from black and blue to purple, to green to flesh again. Ben's breathing immediately evens out and his body relaxes as the light from his healer's hands vanishes.

He then begins to sit up, to which Mal helps him do so.

The king of Auradon is very shocked and slightly afraid of what has just happened. His body no longer aches painfully, and it feels as if it's as healthy as ever. He examines his hands and arms that once had bruises and cuts, some from the ropes that had been around his wrists; all now completely gone. His eyes go wide in amazement and he stares at Crystal, his mouth slightly agape. Mal is also a bit shocked, but not as much as her… boyfriend?

Crystal steps back from the couple and gives her patient a reassuring smile. "Sometimes magic can be a good thing," she says quietly.

"But, I thought you said that you had dark magic," Jay points out, having watched everything. The colour drains from Ben's face at this statement. Jane, Carlos, Evie, and Doug also have watched this display of magic and begin to look nervous. Emma and Hook stand nearby, holding one another quietly.

"I have both," Crystal explains. "Dark and light abilities. It's like two sides of a coin, the good and the bad… I guess it's a lot like you guys. My mother's love for me strikes a very rare balance and keeps my darker abilities in check."

"That was quite extraordinary," Doug speaks up. The entire time, the son of Dopey had been sitting across from Jane on the picnic table, still recovering from the effects of the portal, but was also looking around, examining his surroundings and trying to figure out where he was. He'd noticed the sign across from where they were sitting that read, _Storybrooke Fish and Chips_ , a restaurant establishment _._ While this had never been a place that he'd heard of before, he kept looking around. He'd also noticed the fancy pirate ship moored nearby and he was happy to see that Evie was there after the sword fight on the ship ended.

Once the daughter of the Evil Queen had seen her dwarf, she'd wrapped her arms around him, Doug returning the hug just as tightly. He felt a great relief of having been reunited with her.

"Thank you."

"Uh, Doug, Jane, and Ben, this is Crystal, the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin. This is Emma and Killian Jones. Killian was once known as Captain Hook."

"What?" Jane gasps. She shifts uncomfortably in Carlos' arms.

"That can't be right he's locked up on the Isle," Ben adds.

"It's okay guys, he's not a villain anymore," Jay says calmly, leaning against the nearby metal rail that overlooked the fish and chips place and the nearby water.

"Mal, Jay, Carlos, Evie," Ben says. "Where are we?"

Having picked up on the before mentioned names, Crystal speaks for them. "Welcome, Ben, Doug, and Jane, to Storybrooke Maine. Population, all of your parents."

 _A/N: Please review and give me some suggestions of where you might want me to take the story. Also, thank you for all the follows and favourites for this story. I can't believe I'm almost at 100 follows!_


	39. Chapter 38: Dizzy's Discourse

Chapter 38: Dizzy's Discourse

Meanwhile, back in the hospital while stuff was going down at the docks.

Snow hands a tired Neal to Charming, while Belle sits down, still feeding Gideon from a bottle and Gold stands by as well. All of them had heard the commotion with Regina and then Hook sword-fighting with one of the teenage pirates; in fact, it had been Snow and Charming's job to calm down the rest of patients after either Crystal or Regina made the fight disappear. They also had to deal with Whale's tirade about the chaos that this town brings.

Once everything has died down, Dude comes scampering out of his master's hospital room, bone still in his mouth and his tail wagging frantically. "Mmmmph," he says.

"What was that?" David asks, still a bit weirded out at the concept of this dog talking. He was a farmer and shepherd for the longest time and never once had he seen a talking animal… with the exception of Archie the cricket, of course.

The dog drops the bone onto the floor. "They're gone! Carlos, Jay, Evie, Mal, Harry, Ben, Jane, Doug, Crystal, Hook-man, Emma, and Evie's mom, they're all gone, vanished in a puff of gray smoke."

"Evie's mom?" Snow asks in confusion.

"Gray Smoke?" Gold questions.

"That dark-haired chick, Gina."

"Do you mean, Regina?" Belle offers.

"Yeah, that chick, the one who had a break down after meeting her daughter from another world… They all vanished in Gray Smoke."

"Are you sure it was gray smoke?" the Dark One inquires. He's puzzling over who of those with magic teleported with gray smoke. Regina and his daughter had purple, Emma had white. The only one who had the gray smoke for teleportation was him and that is because he is the Dark One.

"I'm a dog, I'm colour-blind I can't see colours, you old creepy man! Try and keep up here!"

Gold bites his lip at the insult but chooses to ignore it.

"But they're gone, they used magic and they're gone."

"Calm down Dude," Snow says gently. "I'm sure they're okay; I think either Emma, Regina, or Crystal just teleported them out of the hospital to avoid anyone getting hurt."

"But when will they be back?" the mutt asks.

"Not certain," Gold says. "Who knows how long that one-handed nuisance would like to wage a fight like that?"

Belle slaps her husband on the wrist and glares at him for the derivative comment. While Gold and Hook were likely never going to be considered friends, they still have a begrudging respect for one another despite their long history. Gideon has begun to fall asleep in his mother's arms again, clinging to a ringlet of her hair.

Dude hops up on the chair next to Belle and begins sniffing the baby's head. "This one smells different than Neal," he observes, giving the toddler's light brown hair a quick lick. Gideon twitches slightly at the odd feeling but sighs contently. Gold reaches down and forces the dog's nose and mouth away from his son's head, growling deep in his throat as he does so, to warn the animal away from licking his son again. Belle, however, is much more lenient, she holds her son a little bit closer for Dude to take another sniff. She personally adores animals of any kind and thought the presence of a talking dog to be fascinating and entertaining. She was debating the idea in her head that their family could someday get a pet, once her son was older that is. She'd seen the way David, Snow, and Neal interacted with animals at their farm whenever Snow had invited her over for tea, and to see the happy look on Neal's face as he ran around the yard with their dog Wilby was priceless.

"He smells like furniture polish and a hint of dusty old books," Dude says.

"Signatures of his parents," Snow smiles. She goes over and scratches the brown dog behind the ears.

"Oh yes, right there," Dude moans in delight, turning his head so that Snow White could scratch it more.

There is a long pause as the adults, and the dog, sit in relative silence in the waiting room for a long few minutes.

Gold clears his throat. "Should we be concerned about the fight that broke out between our pirate and another pirate?"

"They'll be fine," David says. "Emma, Regina, and Crystal are there in case things get out of hand."

"I think we have much more pressing matters to think about," Snow says.

"Like what?"

"Like how do we know whose child is whose and where are they going to stay until Crystal figures out how to fix this? I assume that Whale wants them out of the hospital as soon as possible."

"What about _Granny's_?" Belle suggests, rocking Gideon gently.

"I could talk to her about it, but there likely won't be enough room for everybody. How many kids were brought into the hospital?"

"I don't know," David says. "I didn't ask."

"Besides, it appears from the looks of it that not all of the children can be considered 'trustworthy,'" Gold mutters.

"What do you mean by that?" Snow asks.

Suddenly, a frightened voice shouts from one of the nearby rooms. "EVIE?!" The voice sounds panicky and very helpless. Almost immediately, Snow's teacher instincts take over and she goes towards the calling voice. Her husband promptly follows her.

"NO! NO! Stay away from me! Don't touch me! EVIE, MAL!"

Snow comes into the room to see a scared little girl with brown eyes filled with tears and her brown hair, which is streaked with many colours, is flying around wildly as she tries to avoid a nurse who came in to examine her.

"STOP IT!" she screeches, trying to shove the person who is supposed to be helping her away. "Don't touch me! Where am I? Who are you?!"

Snow puts her hand on the nurse's shoulder, pulling her away from the frightened child. "Just give her some space, let me talk to her and calm her down."

The medical professional who knew about the fair princesses' gentle nature merely nods and then leaves the room. Snow, David, and Neal are now in the room with this girl. She doesn't look much older than 13, and she wears an interesting blouse with puffy sleeves and a skirt made from scraps of cloth, patched together in a rainbow of assorted colours. She also wears wide glasses that seem to magnify her big brown eyes. She looks at them in fear; she curls up into a ball, pulling her legs to her chest and then holding the hospital blanket up to her face as if to protect herself.

"Please don't hurt me!" she whimpers, her voice muffled by the blanket.

"We're not going to hurt you," Snow says calmly. She takes two very slow steps towards this girl but does not attempt to get any closer. The girl flinches and curls up into a tighter ball in fear. David stays with Neal by the door, knowing it is best to let his wife handle children, after all, it had been her profession for 28 cursed years.

"How do I know that?"

"You don't, you're just going to have to trust your instincts."

"Where am I? Where's Evie? Where are my friends?"

Snow pauses and then talks in her softest voice. "You're in Storybrooke, Maine. Do you remember what happened to you?"

"Um…" she stammers. "We were on the beach… fighting Uma's crew and then there was this bright green light that appeared. Mal used her magic, and so did Uma to feed the hole… then people were getting sucked in. I remember trying to hold on… b-but the wind being too strong. I…I was pulled in and then everything went black…"

She shivers and does her best to wipe away the tears in her eyes. "What's Storybrooke? Where is it? Is it close to Auradon?"

Snow swallows, not entirely sure how to answer because she didn't have all the information that this girl desired to know.

"Um… No, it's not close to Auradon and to be honest… uh… sorry, darling but what is your name?"

"D-Dizzy," she answers, still curled up tightly. "Dizzy Tremaine."

Both David and Snow's eyebrows are raised at the mention of the last name. So this little girl was the daughter of one of Ella's step-sisters, the question is, which one? Clorinda or Tisbe? However, she doesn't seem to take after her namesake; she doesn't look cruel or villainous… she is just a frightened child. The couple has great sympathy for her and wants to help. There was no way that either of them are going to put the helpless girl in the hands of her cruel grandmother, Lady Tremaine, who is still serving time in prison for stabbing Ashley/Ella. But it was likely that she did have family here in the town. What about Ella, would she be willing to care for her step-niece until things were sorted out? Neither is sure how to tell the girl that she was in a completely new world.

"Okay… Dizzy. Storybrooke is in a place called The Land Without Magic, and it's in another realm."

"We're in another realm?" she squeaks. Her eyes are frightened, but also slightly curious.

"Y-yes," Snow answers. She takes another few steps closer; Dizzy is still scared, but not enough to get up and run away.

"How… how did we get here?"

"You know that big green thing you saw?"

Dizzy nods.

"Well, we think that was a portal that… Uma activated, and the power became so great that it pulled you all in. Our friend Crystal was experimenting with portals here and we think the two of them linked, bringing all of you here."

Dizzy's head is spinning by this new information. She'd never thought that there would be other places, let alone worlds, other than Auradon and the Isle. She shudders slightly and curls up further in the blanket. She's so scared about what was happening and wanted to know who these strangers were. They didn't seem mean and they likely wanted to help her, they even had a little baby with them, but the daughter of Drizella is not so sure she should trust them yet.

"When you came through, you were all unconscious so we all brought you to the hospital, so you could recover. The woman trying to help you was a nurse who works here," David explains.

Snow can tell that the girl just wanted some answers and to find people that she knew. The teacher decides to get a little closer to Dizzy by offering her some comfort. She'd dealt with this before with even shier and timider students and Snow knew she would have to approach carefully and never force the girl to do anything she didn't want to. She goes over to a nearby sink and fills a glass with water. She then slowly brings it to her, sets on the table next to her hospital bed and then steps back. Dizzy looks at Snow's kind face then at the water and back at Snow. She then reluctantly reaches over and takes the glass, drinking the water, which helps soothe her nerves just a tiny bit.

"Who are you?" Dizzy asks, still hesitant to trust these people.

Both Snow and Charming look at each other for a long moment before answering. Snow gives him a gentle nod and then turns to the teenager.

"I'm Mary Margret, and this is David, my husband and our son, Neal."

Both former royals decided that it is better not to overwhelm the little Tremaine girl with too much information too fast and so they used their old names to appear normal.

"Do you know where my friends are? Evie, she has blue hair and little braids, Mal, she has purple hair, Jay has long brown hair and Carlos has black and white hair."

"Uh, we've met your friend Mal, and we did see your other friends, the thing is… they disappeared outside, and we don't know where they went."

"Disappeared?" Dizzy squeaks. She suddenly throws off the blanket and tries to head towards the door. She stops as David still stands there with a sleeping Neal on his shoulder.

"It's okay Dizzy," Snow says. "They'll be back really soon."

"How do you know?" the teenager snaps back, her hands go to her hips.

David swallows. "We don't really know for sure Dizzy, there were some complicated factors that caused this and…"

"Mom? Dad?" a voice from the hall calls out.

"We're in here Emma," Snow calls.

The blonde Saviour's face appears at the doorway, followed closely behind by Killian's, Crystal's, Regina's, Mal's and…

"EVIE!" Dizzy shrieks, running towards her friend and wrapping her arms around her. The daughter of Drizella then releases some tears of relief, squeezing her best friend's waist tightly. "MAL!"

"Dizzy are you okay?" the blue-haired girl asks.

"I am now, I was scared when I couldn't find you, what's going on Evie? What's happening?"

"To be honest Diz, I'm still trying to figure that out too."

 _A/N: Please review, it really makes my day_


	40. Chapter 39: When No One is Watching

Chapter 39: When No One is Watching

Uma slips out of the hospital after nearly being torn in half by Mal. Despite the brave face, she'd put on when the two had confronted each other, the daughter of Ursula had been terrified. Despite having magic of her own, Uma knew that Mal's magic was much more powerful than hers, and if this town had magic too, there's no knowing what could happen. Fortunately, Evie had distracted her rival, allowing the pirate captain to escape unscathed.

She begins walking through this strange new town as she thinks about what has happened. She definitely did not anticipate being pulled into the portal by Mal or for any of this to happen. The whole purpose of making the green portal potions was to free her crew from the Isle and then send Mal and her friends through so they could conquer Auradon and then pillage the many lands that were beyond the sickeningly perfect kingdom. Of course, her idiots Gil and Harry had screwed this up so Uma just tried to improvise and now here they were all here. She hated when Mal had attempted to drop her from a very high place, forcing her to cautiously climb onto the roof of a clock tower and cling to that while the purple dragon finished her temper tantrum. The teenager had actually felt fear; she's always hated heights, which is why she avoided the crow's nest on the ship. It took her a long time to get over the fear she felt about being so high up. She'd used her tentacles to slowly climb down the side of the tower, moving the hands of the clock as she went. Once she was safely on the ground, she'd turned back into a bipedal being and then followed the group of strangers as they went towards the hospital.

While Uma hates the perfect esthetic atmosphere that this town portrays, it is certainly an improvement from the Isle. The place is pleasant looking, with lots of places to shop and eat, something that was sometimes scarce on her former island. At least this place didn't get leftovers from another place. She passes a woodcarver's workshop, a few dress and clothing stores, a bar, and what appeared to be a combined shoe and psychiatry building… whatever that was.

The turquoise-haired teenager stuffs her hands in her pockets and keeps her eyes down low, trying not to draw attention to herself as she went. This, however, was hard considering she is dressed like a pirate captain and her long, brightly coloured braids were an attention drawer. Uma couldn't understand why people here seemed to dress so blandly; there is no excitement in what they wore, no desire to express their individuality, except for maybe an occasional bright plaid shirt worn by some very short men as they pushed past her.

Uma's stomach begins to growl and she realizes she hasn't eaten in quite awhile. She sees the neon sign for _Granny's_ across the street, but if it was anything like her mom's chip shop on the Isle, she didn't want the memories. Eventually, she comes to _The Dark Star Pharmacy_ ; while she had no idea what a pharmacy was, she spots good looking food inside that could settle her hung pains in no time.

She opens the door and is greeted by a bell ringing above her, signalling her entrance. She goes straight to the food aisle, ignoring the person who comes to the front counter and says in a nasal voice.

"Good afternoon, how may I help you?"

This is greeting is followed by a series of loud sneezes.

Uma ignores the guy's comment and begins searching through the piles of piles of junk food displayed on the back wall. All of these things had flavours that she'd never heard of and she also notices candy bars and tubs of ice cream in a freezer, something that all villain kids were deprived of on the Isle. She'd never tasted anything sweet in her life and as long as she was here, she may as well indulge.

She tosses her long hair over her shoulder and begins grabbing as much as she can. She snatches every type of candy bar and a few bags of flavoured fried potatoes called chips.

"Whoa slow down there," the man at the counter calls over to her. "Who are you anyhow? I've…I've" he then sneezes into a handkerchief.

Again, the daughter of Ursula ignores him completely looking for the best-looking junk food that she can find.

She knows she doesn't have the money but decides that this shouldn't stop her from getting what she wants. She glances over at the man, who is wiping his eyes with his piece of cloth, obviously trying to recover from his sneeze. With her arms full of candy and chips, she goes to the very end of the pharmacy, out of his viewpoint. She pretends to be looking at other products, something called _Tylenol_ and _Advil_ , tiny looking rocks that were supposed to help with pain. This seems completely foreign to the pirate as the only was to deal with pain on the Isle of the Lost was to suck it up or drink it away. She continues scanning around, waiting for the perfect moment, knowing what was going to happen sooner or later.

Sure enough, the man at the counter goes into a fit of sneezing. Uma slowly begins moving towards the door, waiting just until…

Once he starts blowing his nose, Uma is out of the place like a rocket. The bell on the door barely has time to ring before the pirate captain is outside and rushing down the street.

She can barely hear the words.

"HEY, YOU, COME BACK HERE!"

She makes a sharp right turn onto another street and then into a small alleyway in between two buildings. In the distance, Uma can hear shouting and a growing commotion. She can't help but laugh to herself with glee, having duped this dumb man so easily. She continues down the alleyway until she enters another street. She knows she'll have to lay low now, considering her bright hair will be easily recognizable by witnesses and it wouldn't be too long before they send the guards out after her. She walks in the shadows of a nearby shop and restaurant until she comes to a place that peaks her interest.

 _Mr. Gold's Pawnbroker and Antiquities Dealer_

She tries the doorknob, only to find it locked. She then tries using her magic to unlock it, but it doesn't seem to work. Faced with no other choice, Uma uses her sword, slides it between the gap of the door and the frame and finally manages to pry it open.

She's immediately met by the smell of furniture polish, mould, dust, and other musty smells. She wrinkles her nose but then carries her loot inside. The place is filled from top to bottom in objects that look extremely valuable. Uma's eyes light up in excitement; finally, things are going her way. She dumps her pile of junk food on the counter, shuts the door to the shop, and immediately goes looking through the different shelves and cases open to her. She grabs one candy bar, rips off the wrapper and begins eating it while she searches the place. She only briefly savours the delicious flavours of the candy before going on her new mission.

She finds two creepy marionette figures, that seem to stare at her as she walks past. There's a spyglass, an old wooden clock, a silver cup, a piece of a broken sword, an armillary sphere, a fancy looking tiara, a necklace made of plated gold, a warrior's helmet, a pearl necklace, a pair of eyeglasses encased in glass. A snow globe with an entire town frozen inside, a jar of ink, what looks like a magic wand, a globe of the world, a severed hand, a spinning wheel, chunks of ruins and other various artifacts that can serve this pirate captain well.

"Oh man, what a find!" she grins to herself, going after a chunk of diamond encased behind one of the glass cases. She shoves the valuable in her back pocket. She looks at the diamond tiara and while thinking it could be valuable, she'd rather not associate with the fake royalty of this world. She tosses it across the room. She grabs the pearl necklace, puts it around her neck and then continues raiding the place, not noticing someone appearing behind her.

"Found what you are looking for?" the voice says, scaring Uma half to death and forces her to turn to meet the dark brown eyes of a man in a business suit, leaning against a cane and looking down at the teenager. "It seems that closed sign was merely a waste of money."

Uma immediately draws her sword and points it out defensively at the man In doing so, she drops the objects she had been holding, obviously incriminating herself. She prepares to do battle with this guy, but he merely smirks at her feeble attempts to protect herself.

He chuckles to himself several times, his smile creeping Uma out more and more.

"Who are you?" the girl demands, raising her sword.

"You ought to be more careful of your impulsive nature dearie, it will not benefit you in the long run. Thinking you can do whatever you want is not the nature of the universe, it will always... _**always**_ come with a price..."

 _A/N: His famous quote and his daughter's trigger word. Please review._


	41. Chapter 40: Changed?

Chapter 40: Changed?

Ben, Jane, Carlos, Jay, and Doug sit in the waiting room of the hospital, while Mal and Evie went in to comfort Dizzy, who was clearly distraught and confused by everything. No doubt anyone would be waking up in a different realm.

They all stare at their strange surroundings, unsure of how to take in everything that has happened. They are in a small town populated by alternative versions of their parents and it also contains powerful magic, something that all the kids from both Auradon and the Isle are not completely familiar or comfortable with. One of the decrees from Ben's parents was to make magic a thing of the past, something to avoid and to rely more on science and technology than anything else. So the casual use of magic used by Crystal was slightly off-putting for all of them, especially after Jay had blurted out that the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin had dark magic as well.

"Do you think Dizzy will be okay?" Ben asks

"I hope so," Jane says, leaning her head on Carlos' shoulder. The son of Cruella has not taken his arm off his girlfriend since the docks and he knew it was because of how scared Jane was acting. Gone was the tough persona she put on while battling the War Frats; the sensitive and vulnerable Jane is back, and while Carlos liked both personalities, he knew he had to be kind and comforting to her more fragile side.

"As long as Evie is there, I'm sure she'll be fine," Doug says with more confidence than most of the kids from Auradon would have at this moment. "It is a lot to process."

"No kidding," Carlos says. "I'd probably react the way she did."

"You did though," Dude says as he lays at the teenagers' feet.

"Do you ever stop talking?" Jay mutters, rolling his eyes.

Crystal comes up to the group of kids, carrying her now very alert baby brother in her arms. She carefully approaches the kids and sits down across from them. She allows Gideon to cling to her hand as his curious eyes take in these new people.

Jane's blue eyes immediately light up and she leaves the comfort of Carlos' arms to get a closer look at the baby. She sits down next to Crystal.

"He's adorable," the daughter of Fairy Godmother squeaks. The baby looks at this new face with curiosity and waves his hand forward like he wants to touch her. "What's his name?"

"Gideon," Crystal answers.

"Hello there Gideon," the teen says. "My name is Jane."

As if he understands what she said, Gideon smiles at Jane and becomes more excited. He makes panting noises and bounces up and down on his half-sister's lap. He reaches out eagerly.

"Looks like he wants to meet you," Crystal says. "Would you like to hold him?"

The fairy teen hesitates, suddenly feeling her confidence being shaken. She'd never been around babies that much but still found them to be adorable and irresistible to play with. She becomes afraid that she might mess it up by dropping him or that he might start crying. She looks over at Carlos for a long moment and he understands that she's nervous. He gives her a strong nod and then goes to sit on the other side of her. He pats her on the shoulder and smiles.

"Uh…yes, I would like to hold him."

Crystal then slowly lifts Gideon and then places him in Jane's lap. The teenager awkwardly tries to get her arms around him, not used to the sudden weight. Gideon begins to kick and squirm in ways that makes Jane afraid that he'll fall onto the floor or that she might be hurting him. She tries to hold onto his hands and then tries to get her arms around his tiny shoulders. However, the baby continues to squirm, not liking that he is being restricted. Fortunately, Crystal comes to her rescue

"Here, just have your hand on his back like this," she explains. "Give him the room to move around, but it also keeps him from losing his balance."

"I'm sorry," Jane apologizes. "I've just never been around babies that much."

"It's fine," Crystal shrugs.

Once Gideon is sitting comfortably in this person's lap, he immediately reaches up and grabs onto Jane's shirt. He pulls and begins to gurgle. This puts Jane's mind at ease. That is until he grabs a hold of her ponytail and begins to pull.

"OW!" Jane cries. Her heart beats quickly as she's not sure how to respond.

"No, no, Gideon," Crystal says, helping the teen fairy free her hair from the baby's grasp. She then hands Jane a toy rattle to give to the baby to grab instead. The teenager shakes the rattle in front of him and the baby screeches with delight and tries to get the toy within his grasp. "Sorry Jane, he's going through the grabbing phase, anything he can find, he grabs and often times it goes straight into his mouth."

"But wouldn't hair taste pretty bad?" Carlos asks.

"He doesn't know that until he tastes it. This is how babies explore when they're young, they experiment with taste as their other senses aren't as developed yet."

"You sure know a lot about babies," Jay points out. The son of Jafar has been watching the exchange with curiosity and interest.

"I've worked in daycares for three years, I have a degree in childcare. I've done it all from changing diapers to stopping tantrums. Fortunately, for Gideon, I only need to do one of those things right now. None of us are looking forward to the terrible toddler years."

"So, is he your brother?" Doug asks.

"Half-brother, Gideon and I share a father."

"Right, Rumpelstiltskin," Ben chimes in. He moves his chair closer to the group, also taking delight in Gideon's antics.

Carlos decides to try something he'd seen other mothers in Auradon do and from videos on the Internet. He covers his eyes and then releases them, saying "peek-a-boo!" This delights Gideon to no end; the tiny tot laughs loudly and claps his hands. The son of Cruella does it again, making it more exciting for the baby. This surprises Carlos as his mother had always told him that if you covered your eyes, an angry dog could attack you or you could get stabbed in the back. He was told that any kind of surprise is bad and should be avoided at all costs. He'd never been given toys or been allowed to play games like he was doing with Gideon. It made him feel a bit sad that his mother had been so neglectful and only saw her son as a servant and someone to guard her fur collection.

Pretty soon, both Jane and Carlos are laughing with the baby and Crystal is smiling too, knowing that her brother has made some new friends.

"So who is your mother, if you don't mind me asking?" Ben says as the games continue.

"Her name was Lillian Miller. She was a miller's daughter, which is a person who makes flour…" she pauses. "Do you guys know the fairy tale of _Rumpelstiltskin_?"

Most of the groups shake their head no.

"Seriously, not one of you knows the story?" She's shocked, but then she remembers that they too come from a land of fairy tale characters, so they probably wouldn't hear the stories that she grew up hearing and was told that they were made-up.

Crystal spends the next half-hour explaining the concept of a fairy tale and then re-telling her mother and her father's tragic love story… if it could even be called that. She leaves out the part of how her father tried to re-consume his unborn child's heart to gain back the power he'd lost by getting Lillian pregnant, they didn't need to hear that. She tells them about Lillian Miller's time in Wonderland and then about her own childhood in The Land Without Magic. She also leaves out the part that she'd killed her mother in a darkened rage as the teenagers and baby did not need to hear this either. She wants these kids to trust her and while Jay and Carlos knew that she had killed someone, she didn't need to get into specifics.

"That is such a sad story," Jane says, as she continues to hold onto Gideon.

Crystal lets out a strangled sigh of sadness and nods. "It is, but I do my best not to dwell on it too much, my… our father is very different now. He's found true love, given up his lust for power, and settled into being a father to both of us. While he's missed most of my childhood, he'd vowed never to miss a moment of Gideon's. He has changed a lot since those days.…"

…

"You think I'm scared of a scrawny man with a weird haircut and who walks with a cane?" Uma hisses, keeping her cutlass raised.

"I assume you would be after you found out who I am," he chuckles to himself. He admires the girl's spunk and bravery; however, he'd dealt with pirates before and knew that very few people with a sword were a match for him.

"Like I care who you are, now are you going to fight me like a man?"

Rumple gives a small smirk. He leans his cane against a nearby shelf and stands coolly in the room, showing no evidence of fear at all. He rolls up his sleeves but does not produce a weapon.

"You know, a very long time ago, a man of your profession once told me that a man unwilling to fight for what he wants, deserves what he gets. I didn't quite understand what he meant at the time, but many years later, after I took the woman he loved and his hand, I finally agreed with him. While it felt great to gain revenge, it was an empty feeling, one born of hatred. However, since then, both of us have learned that fighting does not always show who is superior, in fact, we've both learned it shows cowardice and darkness, something we now try to avoid. I, once, would have indeed taken you up on your offer to 'fight like a man' as you said, especially since you have stolen from me and that is something I do not take lightly to. But, I am a changed man… no not man… a being and will not take up arms against a child."

While his speech was unexpected and disconcerting, Uma keeps her sword up, the fire still burning inside of her, ready to pounce at this weak old man. While the word "being" made her nervous, she would uphold the pirate code to fight for what she wants, no matter what the cost.

"I don't care about your moral high ground! That pirate was right, you should fight for what you want and you, Old Man, are about to be on the receiving end!"

Rumple chuckles. While Crystal is not nearly as hot-headed as this young one, the attitudes certainly match one another. He admires her courage and ambition to fight, but she is also quite foolish. Her naivety makes him laugh.

"Old man… Old man," he chews on the word, a grin slowly spreading on his face. A fireball appears in his hands and he grins wickedly as Uma's eyes grow wide in fear. "I assure you, my dear, I may be centuries old, but I'm as spritely and as powerful as a forest on fire."

 _A/N: Please Review_.


	42. Chapter 41: Rationale

Chapter 41: Rationale

Uma steps back in fear. She didn't expect this old man to be able to conjure up fireballs and who knows what else. She may have magic of her own, but it's a far cry from what she is seeing right now. Her heart leaps from her chest into her throat and she's unable to really speak or breathe. She immediately regrets the taunts she made towards this man, especially teasing him about his affliction with a cane. She feels stupid for trying to pick a fight with him, the impulsivity of her nature likely to become her downfall if she doesn't de-escalate the situation soon. Her sword lowers slowly with hesitation and fear. She tries to remain brave, but the fact that she has picked a fight with a very powerful sorcerer has shaken her confidence extremely hard.

Rumple can sense the girl's hesitation, pleased that her stubborn ego has been deflated and is finally allowing common sense to take over. She needs to realize that she is no match for him in any shape or form. It was very unlikely that he would do anything to harm the child, he was a far bigger person than that, but her next few actions should be thought out very carefully.

"W-Who are you?" Uma finally manages to squeak out.

"My name is Rumpelstiltskin, and I am the Dark One. Do you know what that is?"

The daughter of Ursula shakes her head, her turquoise braids shuddering with the movement.

"The Dark One is the embodiment of all the darkness that has ever existed in the realms. A revenge-fueled woman once drank from the Holy Grail and became the darkness that exists in the minds of all people and within the very fabric of these many worlds. The wrong side of a coin, that gives the person unimaginable power, very little can defeat such a capability. The lust for revenge and of anger from one dark-hearted woman becomes a lust for power; destroying the good nature or kindness that may have scarcely even existed inside the individual cursed with this wretched gift. We live eternally, beings that hang in the shadows; we continue to frighten and harm those foolish enough to become connected to us and to above all, snuff out the light. We destroy anything and everything that stands in our way of this mission… Now, are you still willing to taunt me, continue to call me a crippled old man?"

Uma swallows her fear heavily and takes another step back. Her back is now against the counter of the shop. Several books and the cash register are stacked on top of the surface and the teenage pirate feels cornered, with no way of escaping.

With great reluctance and embarrassment, she finally lowers her cutlass completely.

"Wise choice," Rumple grins and he extinguishes his fireball. "Now that you've had your history lesson and learned your place, I can assume that you came through the portal with all those other nuisances, and from what I've learned just recently, you all have alternate parents in this town. Who are your parents?" The purple-haired one had likely mentioned this one's parentage before, but it had slipped his mind as it seemed like an unimportant detail to his personal situation at the time.

"Why should I answer that question?" Uma snaps back, crossing her arms angrily. "You just threatened my life and where I come from, if someone threatens your life and then asks you questions, you either fight or die trying."

"That is exactly why you should answer me. If you want to leave this shop alive, I recommend that you do so."

"Since when do you rule this town?" she snarls stubbornly.

"I don't, but I am the most powerful being within it and I have the power to do whatever I want to you. Would you like to spend the rest of your life as a sea urchin?"

Uma glares at her opponent and remains silent; despite being deathly afraid of this "Rumpelpiltskin" or whatever his name was, she wasn't going to be a coward. She was going to remain strong and defiant to his demands. She'd never listened to adult authority before, they'd never helped her or they would simply threaten her life like they were doing now. She is not going to fold like a piece of paper, she listens to herself and only herself.

Rumple grinds his teeth together, becoming more impatient. Yes, he'd had to deal with Crystal's stubborn teenage angst and attitude in the past, and he'd nearly burned down his shop a few times while dealing with it. He was not a good father in the sense of patience or tolerance for such behaviour, something he is trying to fix about himself for Gideon's sake, but the darkness is slithering back into his veins. It is trying to provoke an attack on this girl, and while she is far from innocent, she does not deserve the fate the Darkness is whispering in his ears.

He clutches his fist, taking in a deep breath. He knows he won't be able to control this darkened rage much longer. He needs some time to pause and reflect, go back to the people who love him, bring the goodness and light back. His hand glows, he freezes Uma in her place so she cannot escape and could still answer for her transgressions later, takes her pirate hat from her head and then poofs himself back to the hospital.

…

Mal, Evie, and Dizzy have joined the group outside. Dizzy hugs everyone with great relief, happy to see familiar faces again. Mary Margret, David, a sleeping Neal, Belle, and Emma also join the group.

"Okay, so Mary Margret, Regina, and David, this is Ben, Doug, and Jane," Mal introduces them. "Guys, this is Snow White and Prince Charming, and the Former Evil Queen."

Dizzy's eyes widen in shock for a moment as the nice couple who had helped calm her were actually Prince Charming and Snow White. She has an impulse to bow to them. Ben does his best to try and appear professional and royal, he stands up and goes to shake the hands of these royals.

"King Ben of Auradon," he says, shaking David's hand firmly. "It is an honour to meet this town's royalty. Hello Prince, Charming and Princess Snow. Your Majesties."

Mal does her best to not smile, despite everything that has happened, her ex still tries to remain diplomatic and polite while meeting royalty. The people are not even wearing crowns and yet Ben is bowing like they must be worshipped like gods.

Emma snickers to herself and goes to be next to Killian. "Kid," she says to Ben. "Just so you know, royalty doesn't really exist here. At least not in the sense that Mal describes in Auradon. My parents may be Snow White and Prince Charming, but here… they're just my parents. My mom's a teacher and my dad's a farmer. The closest thing to royalty we have is Regina, who is our mayor and our leader of the town. Does that make sense?"

Ben's eyes look at Regina's accented face and he swallows a lump in his throat. He goes over to the former villain and shakes her hand. "Your majesty."

"Just call me Regina," the former evil queen says. She can sense the boy's discomfort with the fact that she is a reformed villain "It will make this a lot less awkward for all of us."

Evie gives a small smile and then goes to see Doug. The two wrap their arms around one another and Regina is slightly taken aback by it. She'd seen her daughter run to this boy's aid earlier, suspecting a relationship of some kind and this fully confirms it to the queen. She gives off a soft smile, watching the two cuddle against with one another. While his wiry and nerdier appearance could be seen as off-putting, Regina can fully see that this boy respects her and treats her like the princess she is. It's the protective parenting instinct taking over, she'd felt the same way when Henry first started dating Violet, although she was more concerned with him treating her with respect. The newly discovered mother reminds herself that next time she gets Evie alone, she's going to ask her more about this Doug.

"And call us Mary Margret and David, it's easier that way," the teacher says, taking their sleeping son from her husband.

Just then, Rumple appears in the room, scaring everyone and taking them all off guard.

"Dad, where have you been?" Crystal asks. Gideon claps his hands upon seeing his father appear and reaches out eagerly. The Dark One obliges with his son's demands and takes him into his arms. Belle goes to stand next to her husband.

"An alarm was triggered in my shop when I went to investigate, I found a delinquent juvenile trying to rob valuables from my shop and had already struck once as the place was filled with junk food, likely acquired illegally as well. She had very bright blue braids and wore this hat."

He tosses it to Mal. The distinct smell of rotten shrimp hits her nose.

"Uma…" she hisses through her teeth.

"I assume by her foul salty stench that she is related to some sea creature?" Rumple inquires.

"She's the daughter of Ursula and a thorn in all of our sides," the daughter of Maleficent says through gritted teeth.

"Well, she won't cause trouble now. I've frozen her in place, so we can decide what to do with her."

"Rumple, how could you?!" Belle says angrily, shocked by her husband's brash actions.

"Believe me, Belle, this was the rational solution. She was provoking my dark side and I decided to come here to cool off."

"B-Belle?" Ben gasps, his mouth falling open in shock. "Mother?!"


	43. Chapter 42: Family Dinner

Chapter 42: Family Dinner

The room becomes very quiet, aside from the beeping of monitors and the sounds of doctors and nurses walking about, doing their assigned jobs. Everyone looks at the king of Auradon as he tries to process this new information in his mind. His hazel-green eyes express confusion as he sits in the chair, practically paralyzed. He gazes at Belle; her reddish-brown hair falling in ringlets around her shoulders to frame her porcelain face, her blue eyes gazing from Ben's face to her husband's. The teenager then looks at the man who was likely his father… his short gray hair trimmed to a reasonable length, dressed in a business suit, and leaning on a cane. He then glances at the baby who is sitting on Jane's lap and then at Crystal as she bites her lip extremely hard.

"Welcome to the Gold Family," Crystal says, trying to ease the tension in the room with a joke.

There is another long silence.

"Anyone else hungry?" Emma asks.

…

Mal and her friends are led by the group from Storybrooke away from the hospital in the fading daylight, towards a small looking building that almost resembles a house. The daughter of Maleficent can immediately tell that it is a restaurant based on a chalkboard sitting along the pathway leading to the eatery announcing the daily specials. The restaurant has two neon signs glowing brightly in the evening air, one that says **_Granny's Diner_** and the other saying **_Open_**. A bell rings to greet the regulars and the newcomers to this centrefold of the tiny Maine town. Each teenager takes the time to examine the place with curiosity and interest.

Gray and beige coloured tiles are laid out in a pattern beneath their feet as they walk cautiously into this new environment. The place has an old 50's diner feel to it, something only the children from Auradon had seen in pictures or had learned in history lessons. The tables, chairs, and booths reflected the era as well, the chairs being set in gray leather, while the booths reflected the design of cushions and were in red leather-like Emma's jacket. Black and white wallpaper, with an image of pine trees, surround the group too, giving an atmosphere of nature and forests. The wall from which they had entered was completely covered in windows, giving a view of the outdoor eating area with umbrellas and picnic tables too. There's a large counter to their right, with round stools for patrons to sit if they desired to. Above the counter is a clock lit up in blue neon lighting and beside it are items available on the menus.

An older woman stands behind the counter, looking sternly at this new colourful cast of characters over her round glasses on a chain. Her green eyes stare at them sternly as she wipes down the counter surrounding her. Her short gray/white hair is styled in an up-do and she wears an ugly looking knitted sweater over a floral print blouse, a weird looking necklace and a flowered apron around her waist. The fashion choices make Evie cringe internally.

A short, grizzled looking man with a thick graying beard, bushy eyebrows and an ever-unpleasant scowl on his face turns to glare at the new arrivals. He sits on one of the stools at the counter and examines each child with more and more distaste with each passing moment. He wears a large brown coat over a flannel shirt and dark pants. He holds a drink of some kind of golden liquid in his hands and stirs in occasionally with a straw.

"So… what happened? Did the circus come to town?" the man asks.

"No jokes Leroy," David says sternly, looking at the drunk dwarf with aggression. "Don't mind him, kids, he's grumpy."

"It's my name and I intend to live up to it."

"Y-You're Grumpy the Dwarf?" Doug asks, not expecting to meet one of his many uncles so soon. While everyone else is meeting their alternative parents, the son of Dopey had yet to meet any of his relations. Truthfully, He should have expected to meet them first since there were so many of them.

"What's it to you four-eyes?"

"That's enough Leroy!" Regina snaps. "These kids are tired, scared, and hungry. They don't need your cynical point of view thrown in there as well."

"I'll say whatever I damn want Queenie. One of these freaks just robbed my brother's pharmacy an hour ago. One with weird coloured braids. Seriously, what is it with you kids and the hair-dye, isn't natural looking hair enough for you?

"Leroy!" Snow snarls, staring at one of her closest friends with anger.

"He's drunk, can I poof him home?" Crystal asks, looking at the others for confirmation that this would be okay. It was safer than him driving or even walking around intoxicated and the situation would become a lot less annoying for all of them.

"You do that, you're getting a pickaxe in the shoulder sister," the dwarf barks back.

Crystal's hand lights up impulsively. "I'd like to see you try Lumpy…"

"I'll give you a limp like your daddy," the drunken dwarf yells back at the spunky and equally sarcastic girl.

"ENOUGH!" Emma shouts, getting everyone to shut up. Crystal extinguishes her magic and sits down in a nearby booth. She prompts her step-mother and her father to join her. They know that they are about to have a long talk with Ben and basically introduce themselves to him.

Belle sits with Gideon across from her step-daughter and Rumple joins them. They all look at Ben and he looks as confused as anyone would because of basically meeting his parents for the first time. He instinctively grabs Mal's hand and squeezes it, as if begging for comfort from her. The daughter of Maleficent wants to wriggle out of his grasp and sit with Dizzy… anyone else in fact, but she feels her body become flushed with heat. Her heart beats quickly and she feels her cheeks go red. Despite everything that has happened in less than 24 hours, she still can't control her feelings for him. First, he supports her in the argument against the adults' accusations of her being the one causing all the trouble, then he betrays her by suspending her from Auradon Prep. Then she rushes off to save him from Uma and her crew, changes into a dragon to protect him, and turns jumps into a portal after him and her friends. She was still willing to protect him from Harry Hook and willing to let a stranger use magic to heal him since she couldn't stand having to watch his painful and slow recovery from the injuries. She can't understand that even though she broke up with him, she still cannot help herself around him. She wants to be near him, to help and protect him, to see the goofy look on his face whenever he's confused, or even just to see his smile. It seems as if their intense fight has been forgotten by the ruler of Auradon as he has Mal sit down next to him in the booth with his alternative families.

"Who's paying for all this?" Granny asks, grabbing a notepad to write down the orders and menus for everyone.

"Put it on our tab," David says, as he, Snow, Neal, Jay, Jane, and Carlos all sit in a booth together. Dude is also present, laying at his master's feet. Most people would assume that a restaurant owner would object to an animal being near her food but considering that she herself is related to canine creatures, she lets it slide just this once. Emma and Killian sit in a booth by themselves; it was likely that they were going to use the time to discuss the addition of Harry Hook to everything, as well as their own baby. They seemed to want to be alone and have plenty of space if said teen decided to show up too. Regina, Evie, Dizzy, and Doug take up another table, Doug and Evie cuddling with each other, while Regina and Dizzy look on, unsure of how to respond.

Crystal's head hits the table in frustration and lets out a heavy sigh. Just after she'd arranged with Granny to remove the family's massive tab, they fill it up again. It's a vicious cycle with everyone she cares about.

The Belle/Rumpelstiltskin Family, plus Mal, sit in relative silence as the menus are passed around. The purple-haired teenager examines all the dishes on the menu, her stomach gurgling with the anticipation of food. She wants something filling that is as tasty as possible. She stares hard at the food offerings in order to avoid glancing over at Ben. She could feel his eyes on her, he's staring at her intently. She's unsure about whether he's trying to smooth things over or is just in dire need of support right now. She knew how Evie reacted when she'd met her "alternate" mother, how Harry had fought with his "father," and while she, herself had yet to meet hers, and this Lily person, she knew Ben would need someone to be there for him as they had this "family meal."

"All right UltraViolet, what will you have?" Granny says.

Mal looks up at the elderly woman. Not one sign of softness or kindness can be seen on her face, she was obviously a woman who should not be messed with under any circumstances.

"Uh…" she bites her lip. "Just a cheeseburger please, with a chocolate milkshake."

"Good choice," the old woman says, writing it down on her notepad.

Ben swallows a heavy lump in his throat. The mention of a chocolate milkshake causes flashbacks for both of them, considering the two had shared this sweet concoction on multiple occasions, they had chosen chocolate because Mal hated vanilla and Ben always joked that fruit and ice cream never really go together.

"And for you Rumple Jr.?" Granny asks.

Ben turns red at this nickname but just shrugs. "A grilled cheese and a chocolate milkshake as well."

Neither of the two teenagers looks at one another, feeling a heaviness in their hearts as this would be the first time they would be sharing a separate milkshake. Mal sighs heavily, while Ben turns back to his alleged family.

"Allow me to introduce myself," Rumple says, holding out his hand. "I am Rumpelstiltskin, the Dark One, and I am your father."

 _A/N: Awkward and also kind of bittersweet. Please review._


	44. Chapter 43: Family Tales

Chapter 43: Family Tales

"Rumple, that may not be the best way to introduce yourself to your son from another realm," Belle says, examining the shocked look on the teenager's face.

"Way to scare the living daylights out of him, now he's not the only one who wishes he was adopted," Crystal mutters sarcastically after all the colour drains from Ben's face. In retaliation for this comment, Rumple's daughter gives him a kick in the bad leg under the table. The introduced Dark One grimaces in pain because of his daughter's attack and grinds his teeth to keep his rage in check.

Crystal was only nineteen, and while still technically a young, independent adult, she often acted like a moody teenager… hormones and all. He'd seen his grandson go through similarly poor mood swings and the rebellious teenage years; he was not looking forward to "said" years with Gideon. He had hoped that he'd bypassed the bad behaviours with Crystal, but her attitude and sarcasm towards him told a different story. He cannot imagine what Lillian Miller went through with their daughter in her early years; apparently, Crystal was the most difficult child that ever walked the Earth, behaving poorly and rebelling in every sense of the word. With the addition of undiscovered, dark, and unstable magic, teenage Crystal Lillian Miller was a force to be reckoned with. The father still had much to learn about parenting and trying to actually be comforting towards his children.

He'd battled many people, lived many centuries, discovered many secrets about darkness and magic, but he would never, ever be able to understand the female mind, no matter how many more centuries he lived. Additionally, he was in no hurry to figure it out either.

"I merely assumed that it was best to clear the air, so to speak. I'm telling this young man that I am far from what he would consider a role model or a hero."

"That is the understatement of the century," Crystal mutters to herself, pulling her hair up into a proper ponytail again. "I wouldn't trust you to hold my phone or feed my goldfish, thank god I don't have one of those things."

Both Mal and Ben are nervous about the imminent tension that seems to run through the family. Ben actually shifts away from Crystal and closer to Mal, unsure about how to react to all this.

"Can we please keep this conversation civil?" Belle asks, adjusting Gideon in her arms so he can go to sleep.

Both father and daughter look at one another before merely nodding and becoming silent.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," Crystal apologizes to Ben. "But as you can tell, my… our dad is hardly the ideal."

"We noticed," Mal says as the drinks arrive at the tables.

The former couple stares at their milkshakes for a long moment, the memories of sharing the creamy concoction flashes in their minds. The glance at each other for a moment before thirst takes over and both sip on their milkshakes quietly.

Belle decides it's time for her to take over the conversation. "So, Ben… what would you like to know? You can ask us anything you'd like."

The King of Auradon swallows hard and glances at the people who are supposed to be his family. He stares into the soft blue eyes of Belle, she gives him a warm smile and brushes some of her brown curls from her face. He glances at the baby sleeping in her arms, how much he looked like his father. He then looks at the dark brown eyes of this "father figure" this Dark One. The teenager can see the age around his eyes and inside… he can tell that this person has seen a lot of things, endured countless hardships, and there is even a slight coldness in his face, although he tried to be soft and comforting. Could he actually see the literal entity of the Dark One inside this man? What kind of villain is he? How evil was he? What had he done to become this way?

"Well… uhm… maybe it's best if I ask you to tell me about yourselves… Belle… maybe you should go first."

The gentlewoman smiles and nods. "My name is Belle French…"

The loving woman and mother goes on to tell her alternate son about her life; how she was born into royalty, her minor adventures in the Enchanted Forest, how she'd lost her mother to trolls and agreed to marry the vain Gaston to help in the battle against the creatures, how she traded her freedom to Rumpelstiltskin for the sake of her family and kingdom, how both of them grew to love another, even temporarily breaking the Dark One curse surrounding him, how she was once held prisoner by Regina for 28 years, how she'd fought against her father's control and disapproval over her relationship with Rumple, temporarily losing her memories, marrying her true love, and the various other heartbreaks that both of them endured, leading up to the transformation of their son back into a baby, allowing them to be a real family.

By the end of Belle's tale, the food has arrived at their tables. Mal digs ravenously into her burger, truly surprised about how hungry she was. From the battle on the beach to watching Harry battle his own father on a pirate ship, food had been the last thing on her mind until now. She enjoys the juiciness of the burger, liking the added spice and flavour to it. She goes through her entire meal rather quickly and then orders a sandwich for herself.

"Slow down there Mal," Crystal says. "Don't eat too much, there's still a lot more to stomach here."

Ben eats more slowly as he processes Belle's story. It mirrored his mother's captivity and the love for his father; breaking a curse, even though in this case it was temporary. It was the true tale of a beauty falling for a beast, but with many darker twists and turns involved. He'd always seen his own parents so blissful and happy, while here it seemed like a constant tug-of-war for this version of his mother and father to stay together. He feels great sympathy for her.

Then it's Crystal's turn to tell her story... even though she was technically his half-sister if having any relation at all.

She tells Ben of her mother's affair with Rumpelstiltskin, the darkness within him that caused Lillian Miller to flee with her unborn child to another land. She glosses over the time spent in Wonderland and then goes to discuss her childhood. The young adult then grimaces and cries a little bit when she talks about the dark magic that is inside her and how it led to her mother's death.

Ben and Mal are horrified by this revelation, but they are sympathetic at the same time. The rest of the kids from Auradon share similar emotions, while the group from Storybrooke express neutral expressions, having heard this tragic tale already. It was clear to all of the teenagers that Crystal regrets this action with every fibre of her being and has done her best to turn her life around. She tells them about her own heartbreak that lead to her finding the other half of her family and where she truly belonged, and the ups and downs that came with said, new family.

The daughter of Maleficent feels a twinge of envy when Crystal says that she finally found a place where she felt accepted and where she could be herself. The purple-haired teen wished that this was true back in Auradon, but alas, the recent actions of the teachers and students towards the VKs had shown her she still didn't quite fit in. And the Isle wouldn't want her back anyway. She wonders what it's like to feel completely accepted by everyone, despite her parentage It must feel nice; it is from this that Mal realizes that she and Crystal are more alike than she anticipated, trying to get out of their parents' shadows and make something of themselves, but clearly, the latter was having better luck than her.

"And finally you… Rumpelstiltskin," Ben says as Granny and one of the waitresses are clearing the plates from the table. "What is a Dark One? What does it mean?"

Mal nods, leaning in, wanting to know who Rumpelstiltskin was and what he is capable of. All the other VKs also listen in as the story of this imp was unknown to them.

"You're going to wish you hadn't asked that question," Crystal mutters, taking Gideon from her step-mother for some much-desired and needed comfort. Holding her baby brother always made the daughter of Dark One feel better after going through emotional turmoil. The warmth of his tiny body and the peaceful look on his angelic face put his sister's mind and emotions at ease again, reminding her of the innocence and love that is part of her world.

"Well, the Dark One is the embodiment of all the darkness that has ever existed in all the realms. Millenias ago a revenge-fueled woman once drank from the Holy Grail and became the darkness that exists in the minds of all people and within the very fabric of these many worlds. The wrong side of a coin, that gives the person unimaginable power, very little can defeat such a capability. The lust for revenge and of anger from one dark-hearted woman becomes a lust for power, destroying the good nature or kindness that may have scarcely even existed inside the individual cursed with this wretched gift. We live eternally, beings that hang in the shadows, continue to frighten and harm those foolish enough to become connected to us and to above all, snuff out the light. We destroy anything and everything that stands in our way of this mission."

The entire diner is silent as the impish man finishes his history lesson. It certainly feels like déjà vu to him as he'd just spoken to Uma about this not so long ago. Ben presses his back against the booth, trying to keep his distance from this man who claims to be his father. And he thought his father being a beast for twenty years or being forced to walk the plank of Uma's ship was the scariest thing he'd ever heard or experienced. It scares the young king to know how much of a villain this Dark One truly is, and his stomach turns to think that they are allegedly related. This man is nothing like his father, who may have had a troubled past and the occasional anger issues, but compared to Rumpelstiltskin, his father is a saint.

"But… I've long since retired that mission," Rumple says, cutting the tension in the room with his voice.

"It's more recent than you think," Crystal mutters and the Dark One glares at his daughter. The familial tension arises once again.

Rumpelstiltskin then explains his entire family history. Being born to a woman who became a dark fairy, being abandoned by his father, who was also Peter Pan, his cowardly attempts to escape death during a war in order to meet his son, his wife abandoning their family and then his regretful act of killing the former Dark One and gaining the evil power. He then discusses Baelfire, his son whom he abandoned for power and the regret that would forever remain in his heart for doing so. His actions that made Killian become Captain Hook, his love affairs with Cora and then Lillian Miller, his captivity of Belle, the training of Regina, the perfection of the Dark Curse and then coming over to the Land Without Magic. He spins the tales that he and his family had endured to get to this point; his marriage to Belle, the defeat of his horrible father, the unexpected reunion with his daughter, the time being free of the darkness, only to selfishly take it back again and finally the defeat of his mother and making peace with his darkness.

"Now, I devote myself to my wife and children, deciding never to let power corrupt me again."

Snow and David go on to tell their stories too of growing up in completely different worlds, the hardships they both endured including poverty and banishment, hating each other at first, but then growing to feel true love for one another. They talk about the breaking of Snow's sleeping curse, their battle against Regina, their regretful actions towards a former friend, making the ultimate parental sacrifice to ensure that Emma saved them, and their eventual reunion 28 years later. The couple also talks about some other things that they were not proud of, their separation due to another sleeping curse, and eventually being able to raise Neal in peace.

Killian goes next, talking about the loss of his own mother, his cowardly father selling both him and his brother into slavery, their time in the navy, the loss of his beloved brother Liam in Neverland that caused him to become a pirate, the loss of his first love Milah and his 200-year quest to vanquish Rumpelstiltskin, his "crocodile." He talks about his work with Regina and then Cora, how he met Emma and how her love changed him into a hero. He also tells them about him temporarily becoming the Dark One and then making the ultimate sacrifice to save everyone and his now happy, blissful life with Emma, and the coming birth of their child.

Emma tells her life story next, the hardships she faced growing up in the foster system, her meeting with Neal and the birth of Henry, her coming to Storybrooke and breaking the curse, her trials and tribulations in the Enchanted Forest and Neverland, the loss of Neal, her falling in love Killian, her stint as the Dark One, her quest to the Underworld and finally her sacrifice in the Final Battle that fulfilled her destiny as the Saviour and brought about everyone's happy endings.

Last, but not least, everyone hears Regina's story. Starting with the pressures and manipulations of her mother, and then leading into the loss of her first love Daniel, the training from Rumpelstiltskin, her vengeful quest against Snow White, the casting of the Dark Curse, her adoption of Henry, her redemption as a hero and her finding true love. She talks about the discovery of her half-sister, her desire for a happy ending, the loss of her soulmate and then making peace with her darker half. She sits in the booth, tears running down her face several times as she speaks. Fortunately, the fear that Evie once felt towards this woman melts as she hears the whole story. By the end, she regrets ever being scared of her alternate mother, as she had endured so much to become a true and selfless hero, unlike her real mother.

The room is dead quiet again as all the VKs and AKs process these unbelievable tales. The twists and turns that made up this bizarre family, whom despite everything, seem to love another deeply and unconditionally. To the VKs, devoted love was completely foreign to them. It's a lot to take in and process, almost to the point of exhausting, and yet, after hearing each of the stories, parents and children, no matter what realm they came from are feeling slightly closer to one another.

At one point, Mal couldn't help but feel the irony in this situation. Back in Auradon, Ben was the king, true royalty, the most popular guy around. He had doting and responsible parents, who loved him with all their hearts. They trusted him to rule the kingdom and follow his heart's desires. Here in Storybrooke, his parents are a mismatched hero and villain, with siblings who seem to have their own dark pasts, but still, endear and tolerate one another as a family. And Mal thought her mother was bad.

It's pitch black outside and the crickets are chirping loudly in the cool night air when someone finally breaks the silence.

"Any of you guys going to rent my rooms?"

The Villain kids and Auradon kids look at the old lady, who stands behind the counter, with a vacancy book in her arms.

"This place is also a Bed and Breakfast, so there are enough rooms for all of you to sleep here. Two per room would be best."

"I think that might be a good idea," Snow says gently. She yawns and shifts a sleeping Neal to the crook of her other arm. The princess/mother can see the tired looks on all the children's faces. "It's been a very long day for all of us. I think we should all regroup in the morning and figure out our next step in getting all of you home."

Mal and her friends look at one another, they had not realized how tired they all were.

"But what about this Uma in my shop?" Rumple asks.

"Well if Leroy is right and she did steal from Sneezy's pharmacy, I think she'll have to spend the night in the holding cell," Emma says, standing up to stretch.

Killian wraps his arm around her waist.

"I'll do it, Love, you go home and rest."

Despite the fact that he was concerned about the baby, Emma does not argue, her body completely worn out from all the drama and excitement.

"Girls with girls and boys with boys _**only**_ ," Granny says, as she gathers the keys. "I don't want any funny business going on. That's not how I run my establishment."

"For goodness sake Granny, their teenagers, don't accuse them of such things," Regina says in defence of the children, but secretly she was glad that Evie was not staying with her boyfriend, not until she had the chance to ask her daughter how serious she and the dwarf son were.

Mal and Evie become roommates again, as do Carlos and Jay. Doug and Ben share another room with Jane and Dizzy in the fourth

All of them walk silently up to their rooms and barely mutter even a goodnight to one another before unlocking their doors. Mal doesn't say anything to Evie, the two snuggle under the covers of the large bed and are almost instantly asleep. They never even took off their boots. The last thing that drifts through Mal's mind as she nods off is how on Earth they were going to get home again.

 _A/N: Special thanks to Guest, RosettaQueen20, and Sammii16 for their reviews and to all my followers. Almost at 100 reviews, please make them count. I can answer any questions you might have about the story too._


	45. Chapter 44: Late Night Visit

Chapter 44: Late Night Visit

"How long do you think the sleeping spell will last?" Killian asks as he, Crystal, David, and Rumple stare at an unconscious Uma, as she's on one of the cots in the holding cells at the Sheriff's station.

"Decent 8 hours, she won't wake up until you and Miss Swan come in the morning," Rumple answers.

"At least it's not a sleeping curse," Crystal says, with her arms folded.

"Should we worry about the possibility of magic?" David questions as he places a blanket over the sleeping teenager, a sign of kindness from the prince.

"Or how about the eight-tentacles thing," Crystal asks as she hands David a glass of water to be placed on the floor next to the girl. Once Uma has her water, David shuts the cell door and allows his son-in-law to lock it.

"According to Mallory, daughter of Maleficent, magic works differently here. The violet-haired girl said herself that she has trouble using magic, and hers is far more powerful than the cecaelia here…plus…" Rumple says. He holds out the enchanted shell that had been around the girl's neck. "I assume this is the source of her shifting from a bipedal creature and back again."

"Put it in Emma's desk," Killian says. "We'll deal with her stealing in the morning."

"The child has the fire, I will give her that. However, that fire often burns too brightly and she's unable to extinguish it when she needs to," the Dark One murmurs, placing the shell in the sheriff's desk.

Crystal then puts an enchantment on the lock to ensure that the daughter of Ursula is not going anywhere. If these kids had a childhood that was similar to hers, they would know how to pick locks in order to get in or out of certain situations. The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin gazes at the turquoise-haired girl for a long moment.

"What happened to you to make you hate the world so much?" she asks herself before joining the rest of her family.

The four of them then walk out, allowing Killian to lock up the station for the night.

"Well, I'm beat, I'll see you guys in the morning to fix this portal problem," Crystal vows. "I'm sorry for what happened, but I will get these kids home."

David and Killian nod and the farmer prince heads towards his truck, ready to go home. Killian begins walking towards his home, where his wife was likely passed out on the couch due to exhaustion. Rumple is about to poof himself home to his family, but not before Crystal gives him a long hug.

"I'm sorry for the way I treated you tonight," she says earnestly, wrapping her arms around her father's shoulders. "I tend to get carried away sometimes."

Rumple pats his daughter on the back. "It's all right, I too tend to give into the darkness."

"It's something we share," his daughter sighs. "Makes us more alike than we'd prefer."

"Indeed," he mutters, rubbing the back of his beloved Crystal. "Good night darling, I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight Dad," she says. "Tell Belle and Gideon good night too."

"I will."

"I love you."

It's a long moment before the man known as the Dark One speaks. "I love you too."

He then vanishes in a puff of gray smoke, leaving his daughter to begin walking home by herself.

She enjoys the quiet nights that this tiny town brought with it. The only sounds she can hear are the crickets, a few birds, and the sound of a dog barking in the distance. The only reason she'd miss New York is that of her best friend Alisa still living there; everything else, especially the noise of the big city would not. She'd fallen in love with this tiny town the moment she'd step foot in it. It was where she truly belonged, where she had found the family she'd always longed for and was finally able to put the past behind her. The death of her mother always haunted her mind whenever she gazed out at the brightly lit cityscape… and her break-up with Mason was the second reason she'd left. He broke her heart and she had thought that they were soulmates, he even knew and accepted her past and her magic. Apparently, he was from the Enchanted Forest as well, but then one day, he texted her to say they were over and completely dropped off the map. It almost eerily mirrored what happened to Emma with Neal, with the exception of ending up in jail.

Shaking the thought of her ex-boyfriend from her head, Crystal continues walking towards her apartment. She shivers slightly in the cool Main breeze and several trees behind the buildings creaked ominously in the wind.

Finally, she reaches the downstairs part of her apartment, which is an empty space at the moment. She hoped one day to rent it out and have some hopeful entrepreneur turn it into something interesting, maybe a new kind of shop or even a restaurant, but with all the problems that she's been having in New York, she keeps postponing the possibility.

She reaches into her pocket to get her key when she notices the front door is ajar. Her heart leaps into her throat. Someone obviously broke in; this was typical in New York, in fact, it had happened to her three times back in the city, but here breaking-and-entering was rare, especially now that peace had finally been brought to Storybrooke. Crystal's hands light up, mustering the courage to go inside. She shouldn't be afraid. Hell, she was the daughter of the Dark One and she'd spent time with gangs in New York, she was more than capable of defending herself, and yet someone breaking into her home was still scary and violating.

She cautiously pushes the door open and scans the downstairs area. Nothing but boxes and dust, but the girl's blue eyes gaze upwards, up the spiral steps leading into her apartment. She swallows when she sees the trapdoor open and a light on.

She walks on the balls of her feet, trying to avoid making any noise. She approaches the steps and gazes up into the bright light. She bites her lip before taking the black, twisting, iron steps one at a time. She holds her breath, keeping her hands lit. The once lilac coloured magic emanating from her palms has become a shade darker with every step she takes.

Finally, the young adult sticks her head up cautiously and scans her apartment.

To her absolute horror, she sees Emma and Killian's alternate son, Harry asleep on her bed. Wrappers and boxes of food from her pantry lay empty and strewn about the hardwood floor. Half her six cans of pop are gone, her TV is flickering with static, a magazine lays on the chest of this pirate, his boots are in the corner, his hat on her bedpost, and to add insult to injury, he's been going through her family pictures. Half of her collage of pictures that usually hung on the bulletin board behind her bed are scattered on the floor or on her duvet blanket. Photos of her life back then and her life now. Selfies with Alisa at Halloween and Christmas parties, little Neal playing with Wilby, the Charming's family dog, her attending Henry's graduation, a picture of the preschool class she'd taught in, the Himalayan hike she'd done with Mason… photos of her and her mother… all of her memories are lying around her home, being viewed by a freak kid from another realm.

Completely angry, Crystal lets the trapdoor to her place slam shut. Almost immediately, Harry Hook jolts upwards, falling off her bed and sending several of her pictures to the floor.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did I wake you? Or am I spoiling the fact that you're trespassing in my apartment!"

"Bloody hell," he mutters, trying to gather his bearings. He fumbles around, trying to find his hat and other equipment.

"Oh, it will be **_bloody_** if you don't get the **_hell_** out of here!" she snarls. "How the hell did you even find out where I lived?"

Her angry blue eyes suddenly look down at the floor and she can see her wallet laying open next to her bed, with her written address inside one of the leather pockets. She frantically searches her pants and realizes that her wallet must've fallen out back at the docks, allowing Killian Jr. to pick it up.

Harry looks up at Crystal, his heart skipping a beat. He gives the girl a grin and then places his hat on his head before giving her a bow.

"Forgive me for being so nosy, but a lad's curiosity to learn more about the lass he fancies is a very powerful thing."

"More powerful than this?!" Crystal snaps. She raises her hands and sends Harry flying across the room. He lands roughly against the back wall and then falls to his knees. He gives her a grimace of pain and for a moment, the girl's heart softens, feeling bad for giving into her inner darkness.

"I'm sorry for hurting you," she says. "But I just don't expect creeps to be eating my food, wasting my hydro, and sleeping in my bed! Do you realize how many boundaries you have crossed?!"

Harry gives her a confused look as if he was unfamiliar with such things. He gives her a cheeky grin, showing his teeth. Briefly, Crystal's heart flutters and she can feel her face flush, it was a charming smile, but then she snaps back to reality. This crossed too many lines, no matter how good looking the intruder might be. Why does she always seem to attract the creepy stalkers?

Feeling the exhaustion in her body after this overwhelming day, Crystal just wants to be done with this. She decides to keep Harry in the general area, just until Emma and Killian could actually talk to him, make the reckless teenager listen for once. She sighs heavily as Harry gathers his hook and cutlass, the weapon leaning against her computer desk. She raises her hands.

"Have fun sleeping downstairs," she mutters.

The teenage pirate vanishes in a puff of smoke and suddenly finds himself downstairs amongst the dust and boxes. The darkness is a lot for him to take in and his bright blue eyes blink several times to adjust to the blackness around him.

Crystal then puts an enchantment on her front door and also the trapdoor to ensure he doesn't try to come up here again. She waves her hands to clean the mess and then gets ready for bed.

She pauses as she hears rummaging downstairs, no doubt Harry would be trying to leave or get back up here. She sighs, knowing she had to show him some compassion. The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin opens the trap door and throws down some blankets and a pillow before locking it again.

Harry looks on as a glass of water appears on the dusty counter. A sign of comfort and form of goodwill from the girl that he'd just broken into the sanctity of her home for. Obviously, it wasn't his best decision, but he feels drawn to this enigma as if she needs to be solved. As the teenager make himself a bed beside some empty boxes, he smiles to himself that he was slowly winning her over.

 _A/N: Special thanks to Guest for their 101 review! Also VKScarlett for the 100th review, willdawg992003, and alextp18 for their reviews._


	46. Chapter 45: Strange New Land

Chapter 45: Strange New Land

Carlos' eyes open as the morning light shines through the window. He blinks a few times and slowly sits up. His heart skips a beat once when he realizes he's in a strange place that is not his and Jay's Dorm. He looks around completely panicked.

 _Where are we? What happened to us? Are we crashing in the girls' dorm again? What place at Auradon looks like this?_ He wonders to himself as he sees the cheesy looking wallpaper and floral printed bedspread.

Then everything from the previous day comes crashing down on him like a tonne of bricks. They weren't in Auradon. They were in Storybrooke, Maine… they were in another realm entirely. The battle with the War Frats, the portal, waking up in the hospital, Harry battling his father on a pirate ship, Jane holding a baby for the first time, the dinner at _Granny's_ … It all feels like a dream; a very bad dream filled with unusual twists and turns, but with a few happy moments thrown in there.

He rubs his eyes and pushes a few long strands of his white hair from his face. He feels disgusting and notices that his clothes are wrinkled, meaning that he's slept in them. His feet are also stiff as he still had his shoes on. He looks around the room and realizes that both he and Jay must have been so tired last night that they didn't even both shutting the drapes or taking off their shoes. Knowing that there was no way he was going back to sleep, Carlos sits up slowly. There is a knitted quilt at his feet and he realizes that he'd pulled it up for warmth during the night.

Jay is still sound asleep on top of the bed next to him, his arms dangling over either side and his feet barely hover above the floor. His knit cap is over his eyes, which likely prevented him from being woken up by the morning sun. It looked like Jay would probably sleep for hours, his best friend is known for that. If he didn't have to eat, bathe, or get an education, the son of Jafar would love to spend the rest of his life in bed.

Dude sleeps on the end of Carlos's bed, curled up in a ball. The son of Cruella is grateful that he hadn't woken his talking companion. It's too early to deal with the talking dog. He quietly gets up and closes the curtains to allow the rest of the room to sleep. He then quietly pads across the room, opens the door and exits into the hall.

It takes him a moment to remember which way led down into the diner. He tiptoes along the hall, hearing nothing from Mal and Evie's room, nor Ben and Doug's. He slowly makes his way down the stairs.

He walks into the main dining area and there's already sounds coming from the kitchen. The clanking of dishes and the smells of frying food.

"Come on, Floyd," the familiar, no-nonsense voice of Granny echoes in the back. "I'm sure we're going to have a ton of extra mouths to feed today. We're going to have to double everything. What am I running a summer camp?"

Carlos's stomach growls hungrily and he immediately looks around for something to eat. He notices one of those trays that are covered with glass and often display different kinds of treats. He ducks down low to avoid being seen by the people in the kitchen. He comes to the trays and sees a display of what looks like freshly made doughnuts. He hesitates about taking even one, he'd put his stealing days behind him, but… why would they be on display if Granny didn't want people to take them? Ignoring his stomach gurgles, Carlos stealthily lifts the lid off the tray and takes two of the powdered pastries. He quietly puts the cover back on and heads towards the door. He pauses, remembering that the bells rang every time someone entered or exited the place. With slow, almost painful movements, the son of Cruella opens the door, trying to avoid ringing any bells and signalling the cooks to his presence. As soon as he pushes the door open with enough room for him to fit, he slips through and is out of the diner area like a rocket.

Immediately, he bites into the powdered pastries, not caring as the white sugar goes all over his face and even on the end of his nose. He sighs, happy that the doughnuts are still a bit warm. He licks his lips and finishes both the treats within a few minutes of him walking down Main Street of Storybrooke. And he thought candy had been the sweetest thing he'd ever tasted. Storybrooke may be small and weird, but damn could Granny bake good food.

Once his hunger is satisfied, Carlos begins to take in the sights of this tiny little town. Unlike Mal and Evie, who had been given the chance to see more of the town, however briefly that may have been for them, he was really going to look around, see if there's anything interesting to note. The streets are completely empty as the town has yet to wake up with the rising sun over the tall trees.

He passes by a hardware store, a garage for repairing cars, a shoe/psychiatrist's office, a bar called _The Rabbit Hole_ , a few apartment buildings and what he thinks is a flower shop, called _Game of Thorns_. He turns around a few corners, looking for anything even remotely more interesting than a few dress stores and a pharmacy. He goes by the hospital and briefly glimpses the harbour again, wondering if Harry was still there, stewing the defeat he suffered at the hands of his own father. The thought of the hook-handed nut job getting his ego deflated did bring a smile to the teenager's face. As he continues walking around, Carlos is becoming more and more discouraged, hating the old esthetic of this tiny Maine town. There are no arcades, no basketball courts or any sports places, except a bowling alley, and there is nothing even anything remotely technical like a computer store. It's a complete waste of time, this place is stuck in the 1980s or medieval times it seems.

 _How can people live in a place so boring?_ He wonders to himself, shoving his hands into his pockets and starts thinking of going back to Granny's for more food. Hopefully, someone he knows will be awake by now, as he's wasted almost an hour or more walking around Storybrooke.

The cool breeze rustles the nearby trees, causing the teenager to shiver slightly and try to keep his dyed hair out of his face. He can hear a few birds chirping in the trees by the perimeter of the town and in the distance, the sound of a wolf.

Despite how bored he was, Carlos is beginning to think extremely hard. He walks close to the clock tower in the middle of town, thinking there must be something interesting there, but it was only a library, and it was locked so that is a bust as well.

His head is spinning as he processes everything that's happened in the last 24 hours. He remembered that most of the kids from Auradon and the Isle all have alternate parents in this place. Ben's are Belle and Rumpelstiltskin and he has a brother and technically a half-sister, Whitney and Simon's parents are Snow White and Prince Charming, Evie has her mother Regina, the former Evil Queen, Mal has her mother Maleficent and apparently another sister named Lily, Harry has Captain Hook, who prefers to be called Killian, is married to Emma Swan and they are expecting a baby. He tries to process the backstories that were told last night, but a lot of details have been lost in the flurry of information. A million questions roll through his head, but one remains constant through everything, where are his parents?

He thought they would likely be here, but then he remembers Emma saying that not all of their parents were here in town. For some strange reason, he remembers Emma reacting weirdly whenever he talked about his mother. He'd seen her handshake at the mention of killing someone and her refusal to look him in the eye. He thought for a moment that[GB1] the blonde Saviour had done something to Cruella De Vil, but something catches his attention.

 ** _Gold & Family Pawnbrokers & Antiquities_**

The teenager peeks inside one of the windows and his heart beats. Finally, something more interesting, despite all the stuff is old and dusty.

To his surprise, the door is unlocked, which seems really weird. As he steps inside, the smell of furniture polish, wood, and must fills his nose, and he wrinkles it in disgust. The place is dimly lit, with only some of the morning light shining in, but the teenager is fascinated by all the things surrounding him.

There are swords mounted on the wall, creepy looking marionette puppets, dreamcatchers, strange portraits, a knight's helmet, clocks, ancient looking ruins, old looking books, and even a spinning wheel and bicycle. He runs up to a glass case and peers inside at the pocket watches, jewelry, old coins, ancient looking china, maps, and other weapons on display.

"This is awesome," he whispers to himself, in delight. He starts to wonder how much this stuff was worth.

He goes behind one of the glass cases and looks at through some of the back shelves. As he does so, he leans extremely close to a mirror, half covered by a white sheet and was heavily covered in dust. Time had taken its toll on the piece, the frame was painted black, the metal ends meant to resemble thorns. There are cracks in the glass itself, which distorted any image that it happened to reflect, and it also seemed to portray a permanent haze as a reflection.

The son of Cruella did not pay any attention to it until his hand grazed one of the thorns and drew blood.

"OW!" he mutters, sucking on the wound with distaste.

However, there's something that catches his eye. His heart jumps into his throat when he watches the smooth glass of the mirror warp and change. The thing begins to shake, causing the white sheet to fall to the floor, the frame becomes an almost golden-copper colour. Carlos backs up into the glass case in horror, that is until the faint image of a person appears, in eerie looking, red lighting.

Carlos's breath catches in his throat.

The woman in the mirror appears to be fixing herself, adjusting every aspect of her face and body, and enjoying every minute of it. The left part of her hair is dark black, while the right side is white. She wears a heavy amount of makeup, with shiny eyeshadow and it appears as if her eyebrows were drawn on using a Sharpie. Her dark red lips are tainted with a small smile and pop against her pale looking face. In fact, her lips were so dark, it's as if she'd been drinking blood and it had stained them permanently. She wears long silver earring and a heavy silver looking necklace that sparkle along with her black, low-cut top. But what ties the outfit altogether is the heavy black and white fur coat that she has draped over her shoulders, with a red felt interior, which based on the reddish lighting, also looks like blood.

Her blue eyes go wide as she seems to see something that horrified her as well. She lets out a screech, that actually rattles the mirror. Carlos is still in great shock, but he's also fascinated. He takes a few steps closer to get a better look. He can barely speak, in fact, only one word comes out.

"M-Mom?" Carlos gasps.

"Who are you and how did you get in my mirror?! And dare you call this gorgeous thing a mother!"

 _A/N: Sorry it took so long, please review._


	47. Chapter 46: Shocks and Spots

Chapter 46: Shocks and Spots

Carlos continues staring into the mirror as if he's just seen a literal ghost. He looks down at the cut on his hand and then back at the mirror. The copper colouring remains around the looking glass and glows slightly as if it had reacted to his blood. The image of this version of his mother is crystal clear, an obvious shift from the hazy mess that had been there when he first entered the shop. He suddenly realizes that the mirror shows a family member connected through their bloodline.

"Why are you still in my reflection?!" the vain puppy-hater barks. "I must ensure that my makeup is applied correctly."

"It's the mirror I'm looking through," Carlos explains. "It uses blood to connect a person with their family members."

The woman rolls her eyes, scoffing at the very suggestion. "Please darling, I have no living relatives, I was sure of that because they're all down here with me."

"Down here?" Carlos asks. He has noticed the continuous red tint around the image of his mother, but until now he'd thought it was an effect from the mirror itself. "What does that mean? Where are you?"

"Are you serious?" the wicked woman snorts, lighting herself a cigarette, knowing she wasn't getting out of this conversation any time soon. "I thought every brat of Storybrooke knew what happened to me."

"I don't. Mom, what happened to you? Why can't I find you?"

"STOP CALLING ME YOUR MOTHER!" she barks so loudly that the mirror actually rattles with the volume of her voice. The sheer loudness of her banshee-like scream causes Carlos to step back and touch his ears to ensure that he would not go deaf from her tantrum. "I am sure that I have NEVER become a mother. To lose such a gorgeous figure would be much too costly to my self-esteem… and to throw my life's work and money away for merely providing a brat with food and shelter is hardly worth my time."

The comment hurts the son of Cruella De Vil. Clearly, this version of his mother is just as bad as his own, maybe even worse in some ways.

His wretched mother on the Isle hardly gave him anything, in fact, the only reason she'd had him in the first place was so she'd have someone to guard her furs collection. In fact, he had a lumpy mattress in a tiny room next to her furs closet as a bedroom and had to bypass all the bear traps meant to be a security system in order to actually feel safe. She didn't give him any attention, he was treated like one of her henchmen or even a slave; doing all her chores and her constant cruelty and berating of her own son. She'd made him afraid of dogs and deprived him of anything ideal; in fact, Evie had become his first friend because she gave him a pillow for the first time. He had not been sorry when he'd left the Isle and became the person he wanted to be, and he had the most loyal friend of all, Dude, a dog, which made his mother furious and gave him the satisfaction of finally being free of her influence. He had the love of Jane as his girlfriend and all this came from real love and affection; none of which came from his poor excuse for a mother.

The way this Cruella is treating him, makes him wonder that any version of Cruella De Vil should never have children. He starts regretting ever wondering where his mother was in this town because clearly, she was no picnic to interact with either.

"You're right, I'm sorry I disturbed you, good luck wherever you are," he mutters and then turns to leave. He reaches down onto the floor to retrieve the cloth that once covered the mirror, ready to put this incident of encountering his "alternate" mother behind him.

…

Meanwhile, in the Underworld, Cruella is fuming over what this bratty child has insinuated… her as a… mother. The thought made her want to vomit. She could hardly imagine it at all, she hated children, she thought they were wastes of space and the fact that her mother locked her away as a child, made her hate it even more. Children were meant to be locked up and kept away from everyone, that's what she'd learned. She also knew that it was because of a child that she was here. She'd abducted Henry Mills, the Saviour's son, she'd threatened to throw the worthless child off a cliff, taunting Emma Swan to find another way and that heroes don't kill, but instead she ended up being pushed off the cliff to her death. She'd encountered the idiot blonde again and tried to throw her into the River of Lost Souls as revenge, but was thwarted yet again, plus she'd lost her precious boy toy, James in the ensuing battle. Since losing her opportunity to go back to the land of the living, the woman had been stewing in hatred and despair for quite some time, "dying" a miserable existence in the world now ruled by King Arthur. She would never move on to a better life… she saw herself as the darkness that makes goodness possible and therefore the true hero of the story. In fact, she was eviller than the Dark One himself and a manifestation of true darkness.

But now, here stands a boy in her mirror, with awful white hair with black roots which was seemingly meant to match her own style in some ways and wore a horrendous outfit that had no fur accessories, claiming that she is his mother. It completely infuriates her and yet… he seems to be from the land of the living, obviously encountering this mirror that allowed her to see him and vice versa. He seemed to want to know more about her… this could be useful to her, in fact, this could be her ticket back to the world of the living. She would be able to unleash hell and finally get even with the wretched heroes of Storybrooke, especially the blonde Saviour.

Bite her ruby red lip very hard, hating the concept of being a mother, she swallows the bile in her throat and begins to talk sweetly. Her heart pounds against her chest as the boy seems to gather up a white sheet, realizing what he's about to do.

"Oh, darling boy… please… I'm sorry for my outburst, your information just… startled me and I acted horribly. Please, tell me your name…"

…

Back in Gold's shop, Carlos pauses as he's about to cover the mirror. The sweetness of her voice is almost hypnotic, a much better tone than his real mother ever spoke to him in. He stops and lets the sheet drop to gaze into the mirror again. The woman's hardened expression has seemingly softened and her blood red lips hued in the red coloured air seem to glow as she puts on a smile.

He's still hesitant, unsure of why her disposition changed so suddenly. Did she want something from him? Did she accept the fact that she was a mother? Or was she really just startled by the information as she claimed…?

"Why would you want to know that?" he says skeptically. "You said you weren't my mother."

"I'm sorry I got so angry with you, Child," Cruella continues. "But as you can see, I am not in the best place right now."

"Why? Where are you?" the son asks, inevitably drawn in by this woman.

"I am in the Underworld. Do you know what that means?"

Before Carlos can answer, he hears the sound of keys jingling and footsteps at the front door of the shop. He's in so much shock from this information that he barely has time to cover the mirror and try to hide before it opens with the ring of a bell. He ducks behind a glass case of artifacts and tries to hold his breath.

His mind is a whirlwind… the Underworld… His "alternate" mother is in the Underworld, like where Hades lives… Was she dead?

This realization makes him feel sad, despite how many times he'd wished the Grim Reaper would visit his own mother. The thought still makes him sick as Ben's father walks into the shop. His aged face is cast in half a shadow, very appropriate for the Dark One if Carlos can remember the story correctly. In light of the new information that he's received, he now has a new problem involving being caught in the Dark One's shop. He covers his hand with his mouth to muffle his breathing and tries to shrink into a tiny ball to avoid being detected. He can feel tears pushing to edges of his eyes as he sees the man through the thick glass of the display case.

Rumpelstiltskin stands in his shop for a long moment, much longer than Carlos would like him to. Did the imp know that he was here? What would he do if he was caught? He'd known that Uma had broken in the day before… would he be put in jail too?

The older man then goes behind the counter of his establishment, and rummages through some things, selects what he requires and then slowly walks back to the front door. Each footstep on the creaky wooden floorboards is agonizing for Carlos, his heart in his throat and the sweat beading on her forehead to maintain the position he is in. His body is aching in various places from crumpling up into a tight ball.

It is only when the bell rings again, signalling the front door opening and the firm slamming of the said door that the son of Cruella De Vil finally relaxes. He waits a few more moments before even moving, trying not to be caught. He slowly stands up, peering over the case to make sure that no one is there. He then turns back towards the covered mirror, ready to continue his conversation. He pulls off the sheet to realize that the once copper coloured frame has reverted back to black, the opaque haze and cracked looking-glass has reappeared. Upset that he didn't get a chance to continue with his mother, he reaches forward, ready to prick his finger again when his phone vibrates in his pocket. He curses under his breath.

He got a text from Jay.

 ** _Jay: Dude, where are you? Just woke up and am in the mood for pancakes. MM and David already here, plan to have a group meeting soon. Hope ur ready…_**

Groaning internally, Carlos takes another long glance at the mirror. He's desperate to know how his "alternate" mother died and why her demeanour changed so suddenly, but he knows if he stays away from his friends too long, they'll get suspicious, plus they should really be looking at ways to get home to their realm.

Praying that there will be enough time for him to visit the enchanted mirror again, the son of Cruella covers it with the sheet again and heads towards the door of the shop.

 _A/N: Sorry it's been a while, but here's a new chapter for you._


	48. Chapter 47: Crystal Clear

Chapter 47: Crystal Clear

 _"Once upon a time a song inspired them be brave. They gave me up because my fate was as the one who'd save. The world from your dark magic and the wicked things you do. They placed a song inside my heart more powerful than you."_

Emma lifts her head from the pillow and moans slightly. Killian reacts the same way, rolling away from the sound and putting a pillow over his head. While he enjoyed his Swan's singing, he didn't need to hear it so early in the morning. Her phone is singing and buzzing on her nightstand. She just wants to ignore it and go back to sleep; being pregnant has taken a lot of energy from her and she wants to sleep in as long as possible. This is why she lets Killian take the morning shifts since as a sailor, he was usually up before dawn anyways and she often had to deal with her morning sickness, so she didn't exactly feel 100% until closer to noon. But, they usually didn't have such a complicated situation that they do right now. A bunch of teenagers, realms away from home and in need of help from them. With several grunts, she reaches over, past a framed photo of her, Henry, and Killian on her son's graduation day, and answers.

"Hello?"

"Emma?" Crystal's voice says, sounding slightly annoyed on the other end. "I'm sorry to wake you so early but you have to come and get your son."

"My son? Henry's should be in his room…" the blonde mutters, still half-asleep and not thinking clearly.

"No, your other son with the name that also starts with H…"

"Harry?" Emma says, sitting up, now more awake than before. "He's at your place?"

"Oh, not just at my place, he made himself right at home; eating my food, using up my hydro, sleeping in my bed, and basically invading into my personal space. You're lucky I didn't shove him through a wall."

"So why is he still there?"

"Because I figured it was better to keep him in one place, so we don't have to track him down later. He slept in the unfinished part of my building. Now, will you please come and get him?"

"Why does it have to be us?"

"Because until we can send these guys back to where they belong, he's your son… or half-son so, therefore, he is your responsibility. Plus, you are the law enforcement in town and he has been breaking and entering. I'm not pressing charges, but I want him out!"

Emma sighs. "Okay fine, we'll be over soon."

"Take your time, especially if you get morning sickness, but we do have to meet up to figure all this crap out."

"Agreed," the Saviour moans before hanging up.

"What was that all about?" Killian asks, rolling over, knowing this likely involved him.

"Your son from another realm broke into Crystal's apartment and apparently was trying to make her lose her sanity."

"My son?" Killian says, almost with a playful smile on his face. "How do we know he's also not yours? I could have remembered that bar wench I kissed."

"So, you've said, but it's mostly because the stalking aspect, the apparent relentless pursuit of a woman who is not interested, and the lack of boundaries comes from your side of the family," she says, trying to sound annoyed.

"I'll concede to the first two things being correct, but the violation of boundaries thing was certainly not one of my methods. But you do have to admit Love, that my methods did work…" He grabs her arm and begins kissing his way to her shoulder. "And he certainly has my dashingly good looks to want to pursue a fine lass." Emma feels goosebumps form on her skin as his soft lips press endlessly against her skin, she pulls the strap of her tank top up before swatting a pillow at her husband as he chuckles and continues to kiss her shoulder.

"From a world where fairy tales exist, the endless pursuit might work if it's true love. But like me, Crystal's grown up in the real world and what he's doing borderlines on stalking, which is illegal. Plus, with her history of bad ex-boyfriends, I can't blame her for wanting Harry out of her home."

"Aye," Killian says. "The lad seems to lack a lot of things; control of himself and his anger being just a few things."

"How do you know that?" Emma says, beginning to comb the knots out of her hair with her fingers.

"When you're fighting a person and face the prospect of death at the end of someone's blade, you can see a person's true nature begin to appear in their eyes and their movements. Harry has a lot of anger within himself, perhaps a lot is directed towards his father and being imprisoned on an island for so long, but the Lad is also sad and afraid."

"Of what?"

"I can only guess but of rejection by his mates, perhaps by another woman."

"Well, he certainly seems to take rejection well if he keeps hitting on Crystal."

Killian suddenly realizes something. "Perhaps, like me, he sensed a challenge, saw her as something to be pursued because she closes off most people."

Emma smiles, remembering their conversation while climbing the beanstalk, how he enjoyed a challenge, saw her as an open book, and asked if she'd ever been in love. "She's certainly better than me. I mean she actually gets Rumple to say 'I love you' to her, even Leroy will give her a hug and that takes some skill."

"She likely has the crocodile's charm, but her mother's genuine warmth," Killian nods. "But like you, Crystal has been unlucky in love and is more cautious about letting people into her life, especially towards a lad who flirts with her while he's holding people hostage and breaks into her apartment."

Emma nods, pushing some hair behind her ear. She had never taken the time to see how much her and Crystal's love lives were alike. Both of them had fallen in love and both had had their hearts broken through betrayal… at least the daughter of the Dark One didn't go to jail as the Saviour did, while pregnant too. And now it seemed, they were both pursued by pirates… by Captain Hook or a descendant of him. The only difference was, Crystal was much more willing to accept love than Emma ever did and was more eager to forgive and fix things. Despite the anger, she'd felt towards Rumple for all the thing's he'd done to her and her mother; the young girl had allowed herself to forgive and build something with him than Emma first did with her parents. The Saviour knew that love sucked… a lot, but she'd managed to find true love, why couldn't Crystal?

"I think we should go over and take him out of there, for his sake and to let her cool down," she says, getting out of bed to begin the day.

"Aye," the pirate agrees, rolling off the mattress and helps his wife make the bed.

While the couple got ready for the day, there was still something in the back of both their minds… should they try to connect with Harry? After all, he was at least Killian's son and the kid seemed to be just as lost as the two of them had been. Would it be good practice for when their baby came? The thought makes them both nervous and questions whether the teenager would even accept them as his parents. There was also the concern about where these kids will stay. Granny's is not big enough for everyone and no doubt Whale will want them out of the hospital soon. Maybe the convent could help with that problem as the two take turns in the shower and then prepare to go pick up their "son."

…

Meanwhile, Crystal has dressed after making her call to Emma and Killian and gets ready for the day. She hesitates at the trap door leading downstairs, knowing that her uninvited house guest is still down there.

A shudder goes up to her spine, the fact that he'd been looking through her photos and helping himself to whatever was available in her place is extremely violating. She also doesn't understand why this guy keeps trying to hit on her… what was it about her that made her so desirable? She'd had a string of exes whom obviously didn't see what he sees and weren't willing to stick around. Plus the one guy she did love left without a trace, so why was he pursuing her?

She takes down the enchantment, lifts the handle up and only descends a few steps, peering into the empty space beneath her apartment.

Harry Hook has made himself a little space in the corner by the door. His hat and fake hook are hanging on a stray nail above him, while his cutlass is perched against the wall next to the glass of water she'd provided him with, which was now empty. His face is still buried in the pillow, in fact, he seems to be cuddling it tightly. Had this guy never had a pillow before? He also has a blanket pulled up securely around his body as if trying to comfort himself during the night.

For a moment, Crystal just watches him. She can see the muscles tense in his arms as he hugs the pillow, they look big, strong, and well-built. For a split-second, she wonders if he's well-built everywhere. He looks almost angelic as he sleeps, moaning every so often. She can definitely see the "Killian genes" in this guy and she'd always found the one-handed pirate quite attractive. She'd once had a silly school-girl crush on him, but once the two became close to the point of being family, the crush faded away. However, seeing the alternate offspring of her close friend has brought those new feeling. He wasn't hard to look at and there was a certain charm to his madness…

She suddenly snaps out of her daydream, remembering that he'd broken into her house, had held several innocent people at sword-point, and was generally a bit unstable… but then again, so was she, she was the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin after all.

"Hey Harry," she says quietly, deciding its time for him to wake up.

The guy merely moans and turns over, trying to ignore her voice.

"Harry, wake up," she says a bit louder.

"Leave me alone," he mutters like any typical teenager would.

"Do you want food?" she offers, grinding her teeth together.

He turns over a bit and lifts his head from the pillow.

"Food?"

"Yeah, Emma and Killian are coming to pick you up, but we're all going to go to _Granny's_ for breakfast."

"Never heard of his _Granny's_ , who is she? I also don't have a grandmother… at least I don't tink I do."

"It's the name of a restaurant,"

"Like _Ursula's Fish and Chips_?"

Crystal bites her lip, feeling she needs the complete context. "Uh… sure just like that."

"All right then," he says, sitting up and pushing the blanket away. He begins to prepare himself for the day and the girl cannot help but watch as his muscles bulge slightly as he puts his leather vest and belt back on. Her cheeks flush slightly.

"Real nice o' ye to let me bade here the last nicht," he says.

"Well," she sighs heavily. "Despite the fact that you broke into my place, I wasn't going to let you roam the streets all night or have you find a park bench to sleep on."

"Much appreciated Lassie," he says, grabbing his hat and hook. "I owe ye an apology for enterin' yer place witout permission."

"You're lucky I didn't throw you completely through the wall, because where I come from entering someone's place without their knowledge is a crime and you can be arrested for it."

"Are ye made to walk the plank?"

"No, but you spend time in the… brig," she says, deciding to explain things in a way that Harry would understand.

The two remain in silence for a few minutes, not really sure how to go from there. Suddenly, Crystal blurts out a random question.

"Why do you continue to stalk me?"

"Stalk?" he asks, confused.

"Like follow me around and… flirt with me…"

"I find ye a right pretty lass, a good head on her shoulders too, not afraid of anything."

"Except myself," she mutters under her breath. She then looks into his bright blue eyes. "But why not pursue someone closer to your own age."

"I'm 18 years auld, but tey do say I'm spritely en yunger for me age,"

"Same with me," she admits. "I'm 21, but I can still pass for a teenager."

"You are a Fountain of Youth Love," he says, raising an eyebrow.

Crystal turns away to hide the blush. "But why do you keep hitting on me when I've said over and over that I'm not interested?"

"Women are a challenge, I challenge I enjoy…"

"But usually when women say no, they mean no,"

"True, but most don't say no… in fact, you're one o' two who've rejected my flirtations."

"Who's the first?"

Before they can talk any further, a horn honks outside. Crystal can see through the window that it's the yellow bug, with husband and wife behind the wheel.

"That'll be them, let's go if you want something to eat," she says, conjuring up her book bag and jean jacket. She walks past him, trying to avoid his hypnotic eyes again and undoes the spell that had surrounded her door to keep the son of Captain Hook in.

"A woman who's foggy, but also crystal clear... that's what I like the most," Harry mutters to himself as he follows the girl out the door.

 _A/N: Anyone recognize the song at the beginning of the chapter that is Emma's ringtone? Please review._


	49. Chapter 48: Morning Madness

Chapter 48: Morning Madness

Mal jolts awake to the sound of knocking at her door. She groans and rolls over, very sore and uncomfortable considering she slept in her clothes all night. She wants to keep sleeping and her heart accelerates when she realizes she's not in her dorm room. The unattractive floral curtains let in some of the morning light and she sits up in shock and looks around some more. The matching floral quilt and cheesy looking wallpaper definitely tell her that they weren't at Auradon or in their decently decorated dorm room. She sits up in a panic.

"Mal, Evie, you guys awake?" a voice on the other side of the door asks. It takes her a minute to realize that it's Jay calling to them. "There's breakfast downstairs in the diner."

It all comes back to her and she rubs her hands over her eyes as the memories playback in a really bad movie-style flashback. She starts wondering what's going to happen next. Everyone has to go home through another portal, but the only person from their realm who knows how to make it is Uma, and as far as they know, she's locked up in the sheriff's statement. She also knows that the daughter of Ursula will not give up those secrets so easily, how will they get it out of her?

Mal turns to see Evie slowly waking up too. She brushes some hair from her face and turns to look at her best friend.

"Sleep okay?" the daughter of the Evil Queen asks, trying to make small talk.

"Like a log," Mal says.

"Me too, I like how quiet Storybrooke is, it's easier to sleep."

"And also, we'd gone through a sword fight and a green glowing portal to get here, which will take a lot out of you."

"That too," Evie says, smiling. She lugs herself off the bed and goes to the bathroom. She immediately begins fixing her hair. She desperately wishes she had her makeup to make herself look at least presentable. She knows that Doug will love her no matter what she looks like, but she'd still prefer to put in a little effort for him.

Mal joins her best friend in the bathroom and splashes some cold water on her face, trying to make herself feel refreshed and more alert, knowing what is going to happen next. She pants slightly from the shock of the cold and lets her head droop forward to allow her to collect her thoughts. Some much had to be done to get everyone home, plus she still hadn't really talked to Ben since his rescue… her anger was still boiling in her stomach, but after seeing him nearly being strangled by Uma's tentacles and almost skewered by Harry Hook, the resentment had faded a little bit. Her eyes reflect a slight greenish glow as she stares at her reflection. It felt as if everyone would be relying on her to get them home, despite the fact that this was Uma, Harry, and Gil's mess. Whatever the hell they hoped to achieve with those portal potions had backfired spectacularly.

Evie can see the distress in Mal's face. She puts a hand on her shoulder and then pulls her "sister" into a hug.

"Don't worry Mal," she says, patting her friend's back. "You won't have to do this alone. I promise we're all in this together."

The daughter of Maleficent says nothing and just returns the hug with a strong squeeze.

The two then head down to the diner.

The place is already full and very noisy. Jay and Jane have pushed some tabled together to allow those from Auradon to sit together. They both sit with glasses of juice in front of them and are talking with each other. Dizzy is at the counter ordering her breakfast, while Doug is examining the nearby jukebox. There are some familiar faces who were not from Auradon; Snow White and Charming are already in a booth across from the group, Neal making a mess with his own breakfast. Regina is also getting some coffee before going to sit with them. Granny is busy taking down orders and barking at her cook Floyd and one of the waitresses to serve the other customers. There are also a ton of strangers in the diner as well, confirming that this place seemed to be the heart of Storybrooke, where everyone conversed. A blonde woman, in fact, the same blonde woman who had called the ambulances the day before, stands at the counter with her young daughter against her hip. A blonde man with blue eyes stands with her as he pays for the bag of food the woman is holding. The man with receding ginger hair, whom Evie knew as Archie is sipping tea in a booth with a woman who had fiery red hair to match his. A baby girl in a lime green dress sits in a highchair next to the booth, banging a spoon up and down. Several shorter looking men in plaid shirts are grabbing coffees before exiting the diner, they look as though they have heavy tool belts on. As the men leave, Carlos walks through the door, causing both Mal and Evie to smile. Jay stands up to look at his best friend.

"Dude, where have you been?" Jay asks as the son of Cruella De Vil sits down next to Jane.

Carlos doesn't answer at first, he seems a little phased, as if in a trance, but Jane gently pats his arm to get his attention.

"What?"

"Where have you been? I woke up and you were gone."

"I… uh, I went and did a bit of exploring."

"Anything interesting?" the son of Jafar asks.

Carlos immediately shakes his head. The daughter of the Fairy Godmother notices her boyfriend's sudden distant look in his eye.

"Carlos, are you okay?" she asks.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine, how are you?" he says quickly. Mal can immediately tell that something is off, one of her best friends looks like he's seen a ghost.

"Okay, I guess, though I wished I had extra clothes to change into," Jane says, hating how wrinkled they looked.

"I wish I got the chance to shower," Dizzy adds, bringing over a cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream and cinnamon on top.

"Where'd that come from?" Evie says in surprise. Both she and Mal sit down beside each other next to Jay, opposite of Jane, Carlos, and now Dizzy.

"Apparently, it's Emma and Snow White's favourite," the daughter of Drizella explains. "It's a Granny's special."

She takes a sip and a smile spreads across her face. Some cinnamon and whipped cream stick to her upper lip like a moustache. Evie laughs as she hands her a napkin.

"It's really good," Dizzy says. "You guys should try it."

Mal looks over to see Snow White beaming brightly, probably happy that yet another person liked their hot chocolate this way.

Doug then comes and sits next to Evie, putting his arm around her and kissing her cheek. She immediately smiles.

"Good morning my apple pie, how'd you sleep?" he asks.

"Great," she says returning the kiss on his cheek. "And you?"

"Good, although I did hear Ben talking in his sleep a little bit."

"Weird," Evie says. "So what do you think of Storybrooke so far?" The daughter of the Evil Queen could sense the tension in Mal's posture and decides to change the subject.

"I don't really have enough data to develop an opinion," the nerdy dwarf says, adjusting his glasses. "While I do enjoy the more than adequate food served here as well as the 1950s ambiance, I would desire more comfortable bedspreads upstairs. The docks seem like they have become outdated, and not particularly equipped to house boats, especially pirate ships. The hospital seems rather crowded, although that could be due to the size of the town and the number of people…"

Mal becomes bored listening to Doug's analysis of this tiny town, so her mind wanders elsewhere. She looks around the restaurant, looking for something a bit more interesting. Eventually, it finds her instead of the other way around.

A woman, who looked to be at about Emma's age, with dark brown hair and dark eyes walks into the diner, with the bell overhead signalling her entrance. She looks rather sullen and not particularly pleased to be entering the establishment. She goes straight to the counter and orders something from the waitress. She quickly pays out of a black leather wallet.

As the woman waits impatiently for her order, she also looks around. Her eyes immediately go to the colourful cast of strangers in the corner. Her and Mal's eyes meet. The daughter of Maleficent immediately feels uneasy as the woman continues to stare at her. There seems to be underlying darkness beneath her eyes, an insatiable hunger… something her own mother had whenever she talked about her evil schemes. The woman's eyebrows creep together as she seems equally intrigued by this stranger. Her head tilts to the side as she tries to figure out this purple-haired teenager.

Mal can tell that something is off about this girl, it's as if she doesn't belong, or rather she doesn't want to belong to the chatter and activity around her. She can't quite figure out why this woman stands out so much.

Unfortunately, the teenager doesn't get a chance because the woman's order is filled and she walks towards the door. She gives one last look at Mal before exiting the diner.

Mal is spooked and hardly notices when Ben comes down to join everyone. He looks awkwardly at the group as he sits down next to Dizzy, and his gaze lingers longer than anticipated on his ex-girlfriend. However, Mal does not seem to notice it and just continues staring at the door. Even when Emma, Killian, Crystal, and Harry come through the door, it does little to phase her trance-like state.

The entire group tenses at the sight of the son of Captain Hook.

"What is he doing here?" Jane mutters, not particularly pleased that the pirate had held her at sword point the day before.

"Meeting his possible parents I guess," Jay says. "And pursuing Crystal by the looks of it."

"Like Crystal would ever go for Harry, she's too good for him," Evie says. "Don't you think Mal?... Mal?"

The girl blinks hard, snapping back to the present moment. "Huh, what?"

"Are you okay?" Evie asks, seeing how pale her friend looks. "You look like you just saw something scary."

"I'm fine, I thought I saw someone I recognized from yesterday who helped in hospital trip," she lies, biting the edge of her lip. Everyone at the table seems to accept the explanation, but it was far from the truth. Mal could not get the thought out of her head… her eyes must have been messing with her or it was a trick of the light, but she swears that woman's eyes turned a gold colour before she left the diner.

 _A/N: Sorry to keep you waiting. Just started teacher's college so things are a bit hectic. I'll do my best to update when I can. Sorry for the mediocre title. If you guys can suggest a better one, I'm all ears._


	50. Chapter 49: Discipline and Devotion

Chapter 49: Discipline and Devotion

"Morning mates," Harry says, coming right up to the table where the VKs and AKs are sitting.

Everyone immediately shoots him a look of utter disgust and a few roll their eyes at him. He tries to act smooth and confident around them, but they immediately shrug it off.

"Have a nice night wandering around Storybrooke?" Carlos asks, a slight growl in his throat. Jane clings to the son of Cruella a bit tighter considering the last time she'd encountered Harry, she, Ben and Doug, had all been at the end of his sword. It shocks everyone to see that he still has it, that Emma and Killian had yet to take the lethal weapon away from him.

"Didn't actually do that, spent the night with my lovely lass over there," he says, his blue eyes pointing towards to where Crystal is standing. As if by pure instinct, Crystal can tell that Harry's trying to tell a tall tale about what happened last night. She leaves Emma and Killian at the counter to order breakfast, while she walks over to the group.

"What is he telling you?" she asks, crossing her arms over her chest.

The kids from Auradon can immediately tell that Rumpelstiltskin's daughter is fed up with Harry and that he has not given up in his pursuit of her.

"He told us that he spent the night with you," Ben says, skeptically.

"It's not what you might be thinking. I found him in my room sleeping on my bed having cleaned out half my pantry and was looking through my photos when I went upstairs."

"Jerk," Dizzy mutters.

"What was that runt?" Harry hisses, staring evilly at the young VK.

Evie snaps her fingers, getting Harry's attention and gives him a warning glare that if he went after Dizzy, he'd have to deal with her. Mal also becomes defensive, letting her eyes flash green to tell him to back off.

"Don't worry Dizzy, I called him much worse last night. He ended up sleeping in the unfinished part of my house."

"Which is still comfier than the brig," Harry mentions. "What was that soft thing filled with feathers ye could lay yer head on?"

"You mean a pillow?" Carlos offers. He too has been deprived of basic comforts during his time on the Isle, so this doesn't surprise him.

Harry grins at the name. "Greatest ting to ever be invented."

"You don't have pillows on the ship?" Doug asks in an unkinder manner.

"We sleep in hammocks up high off the deck, so the water and rats don't get at 'em," Harry says a matter-of-factly, not too pleased with the nerd of the group was even talking to him. The son of Dopey had no experience at sea and therefore should not be asking any kinds of questions. He walks over to Doug's side of the table, leans in much closer than what should be considered comfortable and begins leering at him. "Bet ye didn't know that… that we have to make our own way on the Isle, not have everything given to us on a silver platter."

"Back off Harry," Evie says, getting her hands on the pirate's shoulders and tries to shove him away from her and Doug roughly. However, Harry seems prepared for some kind of attack, because he uses his hook to roughly grab onto one of Evie's bracelets, which also happened to be one that Doug had designed and made for her personally. He wrenches at the daughter of the Evil Queen so hard that she's forced to stand up from her seat. A sharp pain enters the teenager's wrist as she tries to struggle free from his weapon and she lets out a small cry of pain. Mal, Jay, Carlos, Ben, and Doug are immediately up, ready to take on the son of Captain Hook. Evie slaps Harry across the face and tries to free herself. However, Harry retaliates the assault by pulling even harder on her bracelet, causing the cord to snap and the apple and heart-shaped beads that Doug had selected and strung together on his own, to spill all over the diner floor.

Several of the Storybrooke adults have gotten up, ready to break up the conflict, especially Regina, who can feel her hands warming up with magic.

Evie is immediately on the floor, frantically trying to pick up the beads, unable to hide the tears appearing in her helpless brown eyes. Doug gets on the floor next to her.

"It's okay Evie… it's okay," he says, but anyone could hear the hurt in his voice that Harry had destroyed something he'd made for his girlfriend. "We'll find them."

Mal's eyes glow a very bright green as she stands up and raises her hands. She mutters a spell under her breath and throws her palms up to let the magic flow through… except, like before, nothing happens. The daughter of Maleficent internally kicks herself for forgetting about this but decides to use her enhanced strength to still teach this punk pirate a lesson.

Just as she's about to grab the front of his belt and vest, someone beats him to it.

Killian hooks the back of Harry's collar and pulls him roughly away from Evie.

"That'll be quite enough mate," the adult pirate says in a low, threatening voice.

Killian and Emma have arrived on the scene and the real Captain Hook pulls his son forcefully across the restaurant and outside onto the front patio. The shock of being manhandled like this makes the kid's eyes go wide in surprise. He tries to writhe out of his alternate father's grip, but he is forced to comply as the real one-handed pirate is far stronger than him.

"Everything's fine, go back to your breakfasts," Granny calls to the concerned looking customers that were either standing at the counter or eating in the booths as both Regina and Snow follow the "alternate parents" outside.

"Ease up there mate," the kid grunts, when Killian finally unhooks his son, forcing him to stand in front of a picnic table. "Ye think ye could be a bit more gentle?"

"I hardly think you deserve it after what you just did," Snow says, sternly crossing her arms over her chest.

Both Emma and Killian are nervous about what they are going to be doing. Sure, Emma has had experience dealing with disciplining kids, but Henry was never as arrogant or as seemingly cruel as this kid was. She was so angry at the way he'd bullied the other kids and deliberately ruined something that was obviously special to Evie. The father of Harry was also especially angry, he hated seeing this boy be so harsh to the other children, but it also made his stomach turn. It was like looking into the past, seeing him pick on the meeker people because they refused to fight and destroying something precious to them. He'd done it to Rumple, destroying his family, although one could argue that the Dark One got him back by destroying his hand and Milah many years later. It was like watching an immature child pick a fight and it made both the parents sick to think about.

However, before either of them could say anything, the Evil Queen had to say her piece first, as always. She grabs the front of Harry's shirt and belt, pulling him towards her so that they were eye to eye.

"Don't you ever touch my daughter again," Regina snarls, her Evil Queen side immediately rearing its ugly head again. Despite the fact that she'd rid herself of "the bad apple" side of her personality, once and a while that darkness resurfaces, especially when her loved ones are threatened. She leans in closely and whispers in the teen pirate's ear. She grinds her teeth as she speaks. "You are so lucky that you're a kid and that I have a moral compass. Once upon a time, I wouldn't have hesitated in tearing out your beating heart and crushing it into tiny little pieces of dust right in front of you…"

"That's enough Regina," Snow says sternly, putting her hand on her step-mother's shoulder. "Let Emma and Killian handle this."

The dark-haired queen hesitates, grinding her teeth slightly while staring into this child's bright blue eyes. She can tell that he's trying to be brave, remain calm and collected in the face of potential death, but she knows that he's terrified. She can see it in his eyes and the way he's breathing, having threatened people during her reign as queen allowed her to see when a person was truly terrified, especially when faced with harm or death. She still has an effect on people to make them immediately fear her, especially when someone she loves is being threatened. Eventually, she releases him but has to get the last word in like always.

"Come near Evie again and you will regret it…" she warns before turning on her heels and going back inside, Snow following, after taking another glance at her daughter and son-in-law. The princess was certain that they could handle this, after all, they were going to be parents in less than 8 months.

Harry lets out a slight sigh of relief now that the dark-haired "witch" was no longer threatening him, however, he turns towards his alternate parents.

Taking a deep breath, Emma begins to speak.

"You. Sit down right there," she says sharply, a serious edge in her voice.

Harry opens his mouth to protest, but the Saviour responds by immediately snapping and pointing her finger down to the seat at one of the picnic tables.

"Nope," she snaps at him. "I've already raised one angsty teen. Sit your butt down right now, we got some things to talk about!"

The son of Captain Hook is completely confused, unsure about any of this. No one in his entire life has spoken to him like this. His father always yelled, but never instantly demanded something from him. He tries to protest by refusing to sit, but the way Emma and now Killian are glaring at him… he simply obliges and sits down at the table.

The blonde Saviour reaches behind to grab her husband's good hand. He gives her a slight squeeze of reassurance before both of them sit down across from their "son."

…

Meanwhile, back inside Granny's, things have partially returned to normal with the customers chatting at a much lower volume and eating their meals. Mal and the rest of her friends are searching around the table to find more parts of Evie's bracelet. Crystal has also joined the search while David tries to keep Neal from squirming out of his arms and trying to eat the beads. Regina is instantly at her daughter's side, trying to help her pick up the rest of the beads.

Evie looks up to stare into her "alternate" mother's dark brown eyes. Normally, her wicked mother would scoff at her daughter's tears, telling her that a true princess never shows her true feelings and to suck it up, but Regina is gazing at the teenager with deep sympathy. The adult reaches over and gently cups the girl's cheek in her hand. She uses her thumb to wipe away some of the girl's tears. The daughter of the Evil Queen hesitates for a moment and then leans into her mother's palm, appreciating the comfort.

"Are you okay?" the mayor asks.

Evie merely nods before standing up with her gloved hand filled with beads. The dark-haired queen examines the girl's arm, looking for any kind of a wound. There is a nasty red mark where Harry had pulled at her bracelet and his hook had contacted her pale skin. The mother gently waves her hand over her daughter's forearm and heals any marks. Evie looks up, a few tears still in her eyes and smiles. She then puts her collection of beads onto the table. Doug and the others bring theirs over as well.

Evie stares down at it and sighs. Doug puts his arm around her and squeezes gently.

"It's okay Evie," he says quietly.

"It is okay," she responds. "It's just a piece of jewelry, you're more important than all the beads in the world."

The couple looks at each other, giving saddened smiles and then kiss gently. Immediately, Regina knows that Doug has the best intentions for Evie, all he wants to do is make her happy, as any partner should in a relationship. She is also humbled by her daughter's answer, material things do not matter to her, you're only truly happy when you're around people who love you; a lesson she herself, unfortunately, took a long time to learn.

"Even all the diamonds in the world?" he asks.

Evie pretends to hesitate before giving a cheeky smile and kissing his cheek. "A diamond tiara might be nice though," she giggles. Doug laughs too.

Both Mal and Ben look at each other for a long moment, unsure of what to think, but there is a twinge of envy in their eyes.

Regina then looks down at the ruined bracelet. With the wave of her hand, the beads form back into a perfect circle and then the piece of jewelry wraps itself back around Evie's wrist. She and Doug both look amazed and happy.

Once her hand stops glowing, the mayor gives a gentle smile.

"It has a flexible metal piece, now it won't break off as easily," she explains.

The blue-haired teenager rushes forward and engulfs her mother in a hug. She squeezes tightly, and Regina can feel that the girl is crying happily as they embrace.

"Thank you, Regina," Evie says quietly.

"Anything for family," the former Evil Queen says quietly.

 _A/N: Special thanks to Intellectual Punk for the Emma and Harry dialogue stuff. Thank you for all the reviews._


	51. Chapter 50: A Lesson in Hope

Chapter 50: A Lesson in Hope

As Regina watches as her daughter hugs her boyfriend tightly, her phone goes off in her pocket. She reaches in and goes to the corner to answer the call. A waitress brings over Dizzy's breakfast and asks for the rest of the table to order. Once all the teenagers have settled back down into their seats and ordered their food, they all take turns trying to see out the window, wondering what was happening to Harry.

"I'm surprised he isn't being beaten," Jay mutters.

"He certainly deserves it," Dizzy agrees, pouring a mountain of syrup on her pancakes.

"Whoa slow down there Diz, save some for the rest of us," Mal says, laughing a little bit. It felt nice to laugh and have a little bit of fun, despite how brief it might be.

"What?" the youngest VK shrugs. "The food here is good."

"The best," Evie smiles in agreement. She continues looking down at her newly fixed bracelet, so happy to have it back on her wrist where it belongs.

"Your alternate mom is really nice," Doug says, keeping his arm around his girlfriend's waist.

"She's obviously come a long way since the poison apple days," Carlos agrees.

"Who knew villains in other worlds could change too?" Mal says, mostly to herself.

"I did," Ben says quietly. His hazel-green eyes then gaze over at Mal. She tries to look away, staring across the table at Evie and Doug. She's still not ready to talk to him, despite how difficult and awkward it has been between them and that they always end up sitting close to one another. "It's why I invited you all to Auradon, give you that second chance. I guess there really is hope for all villains to change if they're given that chance."

"Not Uma," Mal mutters and turns to avoid Ben's eyes, scratching the back of her purple hair awkwardly.

Ben looks over at Mal. "I'm sure Uma is going to change, once she's got all her problems worked out."

"Ben, she's never going to change. She's tried to take over Auradon twice and threatened to kill you both times in the process. Some people are just not worth saving," his "ex-girlfriend" protests, now turning to face him. "We've given her a lot of second-chances and she doesn't want them. She's a lost cause, she belongs on the Isle."

Everyone's eyes go wide, even Evie is shocked by Mal's words. She, the daughter of Maleficent, of all people should understand how important getting a new start in life was. After all, she'd been one of the last of the group to truly turn her back against evil and her mother's influence. She'd even gone back to the place when she felt like she belonged, and yet she was still willing to come back and make a change for herself and for Auradon. However, looking at how things had played out in their realm, the stigma of being a villain was always going to be there and no matter how much they tried to fight for the side of good, if something bad happened, it was always the Villain Kids who are the first to be investigated. It's obvious from her statements that Mal has lost faith in the kingdom and the chance for others to change.

"That's no way to talk. Don't lose hope on her yet," Snow White says, coming over to talk with the kids. "When you lose hope, then the world is black and cold. You think we wanted to give Regina a second-chance? David was certainly against it and so was everyone else."

"It's true," the prince agrees, bringing over their son to join the conversation. "Most people wanted her to pay for what she'd done by casting the curse for 28 years. I had a particular vendetta against her for having her knights nearly killing me and her curse separating Snow and me from seeing Emma grow up."

"So, what stopped you from taking revenge?" Mal asks.

"It certainly wasn't easy to do that," Snow admits. "In fact, Doctor Whale from the hospital was the one leading the charge of an angry mob hell bent on killing Regina. We stopped them because we knew that nothing good ever comes from death or committing evil acts. But I think the true reason we didn't do anything and gave her a second chance, was Henry."

"Henry?" Ben asks. "You mean Emma's son?"

"Regina's son too," Crystal adds as she sits on a nearby table, eating her breakfast. The waitress comes back to the table with the rest of the food. The VKs and AKs dig in, savouring the delicious flavouring of the diner food.

"We knew that she loved Henry and would do anything for him. And despite what he said, he loved her too. His love is what saved her, gave her the second chance to try and change for the better," Snow says.

"It was more like the twenty-sixth chance," Crystal chimes in, with a smirk on her face. "My dad still tried to kill Regina and she did work with her vengeful mother, Cora for awhile. It wasn't until Henry was put in danger that everyone worked together against a common enemy…

"And once Regina found love again, that's when we knew she'd become a hero," Snow says, feeling a happy swell in her body, so pleased that her former mortal enemy, whom she'd spared from execution once, had now become her closest friend and a true member of the family.

"In fact, a lot of people that you'll meet in this town have had second chances," Crystal continues. "My dad had at least fifty before he actually proved himself. Killian was not the nicest person when Emma and Snow first met him, and he tried to kill my dad quite a few times. Even Wicked Z over there has walked the path to redemption." She points to the Wicked Witch of the West, who is finishing her meal and cleaning her daughter's face.

"I heard that," the redhead snaps, giving a glare at the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin. She scoops Robin up from her high chair and comes over to join the group.

"It's the truth," Crystal grins.

"Oh everyone, this is Zelena, Regina's half-sister and the former Wicked Witch of the West," Snow introduces the kids to them. "Zelena, this is Mal, Evie, Jay, Carlos, Jane, Ben, Doug and Dizzy. They're all from Auradon."

"I'd heard that there were new munchkins walking around town," she says almost haughtily. The witch eyes each of the children skeptically; she could hardly believe their hair colours and downright bizarre looking clothing. Who would want to look like that? And she thought that having green skin was bad. They looked like the worst punk-rock band of flying monkeys she'd ever seen. She raises an eyebrow at them.

"Are you from Oz?" Mal asks, remembering the book.

"I am, how do you know that Plum-Head?"

Mal's eyes flash a bit green at the insult and must bite her lip to avoid lashing out at this woman, who had an innocent baby in her arms.

"Easy Zelena," David says. He leans in and whispers in the witch's ear. "Mal's the daughter of Maleficent and yes she can do the dragon thing too."

"That would be interesting," the redhead witch says, her eyes lighting up with an idea.

"Don't even think about it," Snow warns, taking Neal into her arms. "It's the last thing we need right now."

"Why must you spoil the fun?" the witch whines, shifting Robin to her other hip.

"We read about the land of Oz in a book," Ben says, stepping in to allow Mal to calm down. "Tell me, this wizard, is he is as great and powerful as the book says?"

Zelena snorts and then begins laughing so hard she's leaning over. She can hardly stand how gullible this boy was, thinking Oz was a powerful wizard. Ben turns a bit red and his face frowns in confusion as to why she's laughing so hard at him.

"Trust me Naive one, he was neither great nor powerful, once I was through with him," she says, having to wipe her eyes from laughing so hard. "That book really must be updated as soon as possible."

"The guy was a magician from this world," Crystal explains, not exactly enjoying the fact that Zelena was laughing so hard that she was going to pee herself. She can tell that the witch is embarrassing her half-brother. "He had no powers and god only knows how he became the ruler. But Zelena ran the show for a long time until she went on a vengeance quest against her sister."

"And she eventually found redemption," David adds.

"And all those villains found it through one thing…" Snow says. "Love."

"She is correct," Zelena agrees.

"Henry's love for Regina and her love from Robin Hood made her a better person. Zelena's love for her daughter allowed for a change in her heart. Emma's love for Killian saved him from a continued life of vengeance and anger, and Belle's love for Rumple saved him from the eternal existence of being the embodiment of darkness," David says.

"And I'm sure that love will work for Uma too," Snow says optimistically.

Mal snorts and rolls her eyes. "Yeah right, the only thing Uma loves is herself."

"But she must have friends, what about those in her crew like Harry?"

"They're more like crewmates," Carlos says. "They mostly just fear her and take orders."

"And I'm guessing like all of you, her mother won't win parent of the year?" Crystal asks.

"Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding" Mal mutters sarcastically, waving her fork in the air. "Someone should give you a gold medal. You're the smartest one here." The purple-haired teenager then turns to the fairest one of all. "Sorry Snow, but Uma's doesn't have any love in her life and I doubt she's going to ever find some."

Before the teacher can answer, Regina comes back to the group, looking irritated and angry. She clutches her phone so tightly in her grasp, it looks like she's going to crush it completely.

"What's wrong Regina?" David asks.

"Everybody better finish eating because that was Whale on the phone and he wants all kids from alternate realms removed from his hospital as soon as possible before he loses the last bit of his sanity. Apparently, some blonde boy with an enormous ego is demanding better food and is pushing him to the absolute limit. So, finish your hope speech Snow and let's get going."

 _A/N: I can't believe I've done 50 chapters already. I want to thank everyone for their continued support and reviews. It gives me the confidence to keep writing all the time. I felt it was a good idea to post a chapter on my birthday for everyone to enjoy, and it's a chapter about hope, perfect for me as I embark into the world as a 22-year-old. Thank you to all my fans, so far it's been great._


	52. Chapter 51: Roll Call

Chapter 51: Roll Call

"Do we really have to do this?" Jay moans as the group approaches the entrance to the hospital.

"Yes, because apparently, some kid named Chad is making more and more outlandish demands and Whale is losing his sanity," Regina explains. "And the rogue pirates aren't helping either. The one thing you do not want to do is piss off a man who spent a lot of his spare time grave robbing, sewing body parts together and trying to bring back the dead. "

At this mention, the son of Jafar immediately agrees with the Evil Queen.

"Who are Chad's parents?" Emma asks, with Killian's arm wrapped around her waist.

"Cinderella and Prince Charming," Evie answers, biting her lip rather hard. Doug keeps his arm around his girlfriend's shoulders, giving her comfort and reassurance. The two royals had a history that Evie preferred to forget. She hated that she's fallen for the shallow spoiled brat and followed him around like a love-sick puppy dog. It felt like her lowest point in life... and this was saying something because she was from the Isle. She knows the only reason she'd fallen for him was that of his status as a prince and his charming looks, which unfortunately he lived up to like his father. She'd been used by him to do his homework and tried to be vain and arrogant to impress him; a person that she was no longer proud of once being. She can't help but feel ashamed of her actions; she had only been looking at the surface when she should have been going for depth. Doug's devotion and love for her showed her that beauty is far more than skin-deep.

"I forgot that there were two people with that title," David says, as he carries Neal on his shoulders.

"No there isn't," Snow says with a grin. "There will always be one prince charming, and he's mine." She pecks him on the cheek, causing Emma to roll her eyes in embarrassment.

"Who else is in this group?" the Saviour asks so they could get a list together for roll call. The entire group stops

"Audrey, the daughter of Prince Phillip and Aurora," Jane says.

"Tallia Bell, she's Tinkerbell's kid," Jay adds. "Ally, the daughter of Alice."

"As in Wonderland?" Crystal asks.

"Yep," the son of Jafar nods.

"Uhm, Whitney and Simon White," Mal adds.

"Oh… so we have twins?" Snow asks in surprise, expecting maybe one of the children from Auradon might be hers and David's, not two. While a couple of true love always desired to have more children after Emma and having been blessed with Neal; they'd never taken the time to think about expanding the family any further. However, this, in a way was ideal, they had more children to give parental love and affection to.

"Double trouble," Ben smiles. "And they also hate apples."

"Runs in the family," Emma agrees. Her stomach turns sharply. Having an alternate kid with Killian is one thing and a reckless and rebellious one who takes after his father is certainly not ideal for the nervous parents-to-be. But now having to adjust to meeting a new brother and sister too, is a lot for her to take in. She leans heavily on Killian for support, unsure of how to react.

"Paige and Patrick Pan," Carlos says, holding Jane's hand.

"Hey, I have an aunt and uncle, and I'm both older than them," Crystal grins sarcastically.

"Ruby and Anxelin, they are daughters of Rapunzel," Jane says. "Jordan, the daughter of Genie and Eden."

"Who?" Snow asks.

"She's the daughter of the Genie of the lamp," Jane explains.

"Oh, Sidney will be most delighted," Regina mutters under her breath, not exactly thrilled with letting a child near her former magic mirror, the being whom she manipulated into killing King Leopold for her, who kidnapped Kathryn/ Abigail for her as well, and who teamed up with the Snow Queen in order to earn his freedom again. The man had always been her snake in the grass and since she'd long left the side of evil, she still couldn't trust him knowing how blindly willing he was to do anything for anyone who gave him attention.

"Herkie is the son of Hercules and Megara," Jay continues. "Pin, son of Pinocchio, Aziz, son of Aladdin and Jasmine…"

"So there is a kid for Aladdin," Emma says, remembering when she assumed that Jay was said son of the royal couple.

Jay nods. "Lonnie and her brother Li Shang Jr. They're the kids of Mulan and Li Shang."

"Tia, the daughter of Tiana and Naveen," Dizzy pipes up.

"Who?" David asks, having never heard those names before.

"Robbie, the son of Robin Hood," Jane says. The mention of her soulmate's name causes Regina to swallow a large lump in her throat. She fights back the tears and takes a step up the hospital stairs to give herself some breathing space. The other people from Storybrooke all give glances at the former Evil Queen, to ensure that she'll be okay. Crystal goes up and wraps her arms around Regina to give her comfort. Like when the mayor of Storybrooke had been a comfort to her when she was at her lowest point, Crystal now knew she had to be the same for her friend.

"Melody is the daughter of Ariel and she has a cousin named Arabella," Evie lists.

"And my seven cousins," Doug finishes.

"Wow, so Grumpy did find someone to marry him," Emma says in surprise. "That is no easy feat."

"Love finds a way," Snow says, happy to hear that all her dwarf friends managed to find love and happiness to have their own children in an alternate universe.

"Can't imagine having seven brothers," Crystal adds. "It's why I've never watched that movie."

"And what about the crew that came with Uma?" Killian asks.

"Well, you've met Harry. There's Gil, son of Gaston, Gonzo, Jonas, Bonny, and Desiree."

"Didn't expect Gaston to have kids," Crystal says, glad that her step-mother was not present to hear this.

"Gil actually got off easy, the muscle-headed villain had twins as well and their names are Gaston Jr. and Gaston the Third," Evie says.

"Not very creative, is he?" Zelena asks, laughing to herself.

"Never expect much from that jerk," Crystal adds. "All muscle and no brain cells. His ego must be gigantic to merely just call his sons after himself."

"I think only Chad could give him a run for his money when it comes to the ego," Mal adds.

"And how bad are these crew members," Regina asks. "Will we need magic to restrain them like Uma?"

"Uhm…" Mal says, hesitating. All of Uma's crew members were pretty wild and unruly, one of them was even considered crazy. She looks at Ben and the two lock eyes. He knew better than anyone how cruel the crew could be. "That would be a yes. I think it's better if we leave the little ones out here."

"Okay then, I think we've tortured Whale enough by delaying our entrance, let's go in," Snow says. She hands Neal over to Zelena, so the witch could watch the younger ones. Sometimes it surprised even Snow White that she was actually willingly handing her son off to the Wicked Witch of the West, who had tried to snatch the baby for her time-travel spell after he had taken his first breath. So much had changed in their lives. The princess then grabs her husband's hand and squeezes tightly, nervous about meeting their alternate children.

Regina pushes open the door and the hospital seems to be in utter chaos. Nurses are rushing around, likely trying to keep everyone in line. There are loud noises of shouting coming from behind a door, which had a piece of heavy-looking medical equipment in front of it. One guess as to who was behind it. Many of the Auradon kids are sitting in the waiting room while Nurse Ratchet tries to keep them in line. Tallia is chewing bubble gum with her feet up on one of the chairs, Ally is curiously looking through several magazines that lay on a table, both sets of twins are arguing with another nurse about something, a couple of the other kids are trying to get snacks out of the vending machines and of course, Chad is causing the biggest bit of chaos of all.

He stands there arguing with the bleach-haired doctor, likely demanding things left right and centre. Once Whale sees the group has arrived, he takes this chance to escape by rushing over to them.

Regina can't help but feel slight amusement at the doctor's agitated state.

"Where the hell have you been?!" he demands. "I've been stuck trying to keep these monsters for the past hour! I've had swords at my throat, some girl stuck gum on my stethoscope, and another insisted on me giving her the location of the nearest salon. Apparently, it's illegal to give them sedatives by force. Now, will you please get them the hell out of my ER! I have a tonsillectomy and two bypasses to do!"

Dr. Frankenstein doesn't say much more before hurrying down the hall and Regina can swear she can see the doctor pull out a flask and take a huge swig of booze. She still cannot resist laughing at his frazzled state.

Finally, Chad steps out of his own delusions to notice that there are finally some familiar faces in the room. Audrey does too, she gets up and embraces Ben tightly. Mal swallows a lump of anger in her throat as the hug lasts much longer then she would have liked… but wait, why is she jealous? They broke up more than a day ago. She had yet to truly take the time to sort out her emotions towards what happened at Auradon, things are just so complicated and distracting at the moment.

"Ben, I'm so glad you're okay," she says. The daughter of Prince Phillipe and Aurora looks rather frightened and confused, clearly reacting as any person would, waking up in a strange bed, in a strange room, in a strange land.

The other AKs come over to see if Ben is okay as well, that is until Chad cuts his way through the group and begins complaining again.

"Thank goodness there's someone with half a brain here," Chad says. "Jane, Ben, Doug, you have no idea how terrible the food is here. Audrey and I can barely swallow it and they won't even let us get their own. We were only allowed to have water, nothing sweet to drink at all. Not even a smoothie or cappuccino. I need some form of caffeine in order to wake up properly. Where are we anyway? What did that flashy green thing do to us? Why does that doctor have such a terrible dye job?"

"What did Cinderella do wrong?" Regina mutters, rolling her eyes in sheer annoyance of this boy. She's tempted to remove his voice, so everyone can have some peace and quiet. It worked for her sister. She grinds her teeth irritation, not knowing she was about to become a whole lot angrier with him in time.

 _A/N: Never fails to make me smile when Whale is under pressure and stressed. Plus people still notice his dyed hair_


	53. Chapter 52: Heroes or Villains?

Chapter 52: Heroes or Villains?

"All right I think it's time to get everything under control," Regina says. She then turns to the crowd of teenagers. "Okay everyone from Auradon or the Isle please listen up!"

It takes a few minutes until all the teenagers lower their voices, the former Evil Queen feels like she's in a high school classroom. Even Chad listens, which is a rare occurrence in his behaviour. Even the pirates shut in the room with the heavy medical equipment stop trying to ram the door down. A few curious eyes peer out from the crack trying to hear what this strange woman has to say.

"My name is Regina Mills and I'm the mayor of Storybrooke, the town in which you are now currently residing in…"

"Where is Storybrooke, that's not in Auradon?!" Chad speaks up.

"How would you know that?" Tallia sneers. "You always fall asleep in Geography class."

"Uh for your information Tallia Bell, I happen to look over the notes that I get Doug to take for me in Geography, so I know some things about where we live and such." His statement is supposed to make him sound smart, but really it makes him sound extremely lazy and spoiled. Evie stares daggers at Chad while keeping Doug in her arms. Tallia rolls her eyes and leans against the nearest wall, waiting to hear what this Regina had to say.

"Yeah, that helps your case," Tallia snickers sarcastically.

"I honestly don't see the point in learning about other locations, all I need to know is where I live and where I need to go to get my hair gel."

"I think knowing Geography right now would actually be helpful," Mal says, also smirking at how stupid the ditzy blonde prince looks. He and Audrey deserve each other.

"Ah hum!" Regina says, clearing her throat and showing everyone that she is not pleased with being interrupted. "I was actually about to explain that. Storybrooke exists in another realm entirely from your Auradon."

"The United States of Auradon," Ben adds helpfully but swallows hard when Regina gives him a warning look. "Sorry."

"As I was saying, Storybrooke is in a realm known as the Land Without Magic, a separate realm from the one in which we came from."

"Where did you come from?" Ally asks.

Regina bites her lip, beginning to get sick of being interrupted.

"The place is known as the Enchanted Forest, where most of us from Storybrooke come from. I am Regina Mills, but in the Enchanted Forest…" she hesitates, knowing what the reaction will be. "I was known as the Evil Queen..."

Audrey gasps in horror, cutting off the mayor once again and slips behind Ben, while grabbing Chad's arm for comfort, however, he tries to hide behind her to protect himself. Whitney and Simon step back, ready to run from the room after seeing the person who poisoned their mother. A couple of the seven dwarves also behind to shift towards the nearest exit, knowing how much trouble the wicked woman put their fathers through. Lonnie and Lil Shang put their fists up, ready to fight since they had no weapons. A couple of other kids merely look on in shock but remain where they are. The pirates locked in the adjoining room snicker at the heroes pathetic displays of fear.

"Please don't poison us," Audrey whimpers.

"This hospital better not have apples!" Chad chimes in, feeding the growing fear in the room.

Regina rolls her eyes. Another fine piece of work with Phillip and Aurora's daughter as well. "I'm not going to poison you if you'd let me finish my sentence, I was going to tell you that I am the Evil Queen, but not your Evil Queen. In fact, I don't even go by that title anymore. My name is Regina Mills, it's that simple…"

"How can you not be our Evil Queen, that makes no sense," Tallia says skeptically.

Regina grinds her teeth in anger, the interruptions are becoming more and more irritating.

"If you'd let me finish my sentence again…"

"How can you not go by that name, and how are you free? Villains aren't supposed to be free. Why aren't you locked up on some island?!" Chad carries on, making everyone roll your eyes.

"Okay Blondie," Crystal snaps finally ready to step in. "If you'd let Regina finish her god damned sentence you would learn that Regina is a hero, hence the reason why she doesn't go by that title anymore."

"But that's not possible," the son of Cinderella and Prince Charming says. "Villains never change."

"And what do you think we did Moron?!" Mal snaps, her eyes glowing green again. She steps forward, ready to put this puny prince in his place once and for all, but Ben's hand wraps around her one of her sleeves, trying to bring her temper down. Chad whimpers and hides behind Audrey, who is also slowly backing away from the angry VK.

"Actually a lot of villains here have changed," Snow White says, deciding to prove the point. "This man here," she indicates Killian. "He was once known as Captain Hook."

There's some commotion behind the door where the Isle pirates hurry to try to get a glimpse of the famed pirate. They push harder against the door and the medical equipment to see. A couple of them start to laugh when they see that he has his arms around a blonde woman and in no way looks menacing or evil.

"That can't be Hook," one of the teen pirates calls out. "That guy's a big softie."

"He beat Harry Hook, one of your crew members in a duel yesterday," Emma says bluntly. Killian then removes his hand from his pocket to show everyone his famous hook. A lot of people gasp, including Uma's crew and few of them, whisper amongst each other about whether this is actually true.

"There's no way that's him," Jonas says to his friends.

"Yeah, the only person who can beat Harry in a duel is Uma," Bonny adds.

"And how do we know the hook isn't fake, Harry's is," Gonzo shouts through the crack.

Emma rolls her eyes and Killian sighs before turning his hook until it came off the end of his hand. His wife then helps him loosen the buckles to remove the arm part of the harness that holds his hook in place. He then shows the crowd the stump from which Rumpelstiltskin had removed his left-hand centuries before. The scar tissue was rather grotesque to look at, with the skin being slightly uneven and inflamed. The blue-eyed pirate bites his lip slightly from the pain of removing the straps, but Emma's gentle touch helped it a little bit.

Audrey wrinkles her nose in disgust cringes heavily and looks away, not able to keep looking at it. Chad looks like he wants to throw up but still begins to hide behind his girlfriend. Tallia looks extremely peeved at the realization that this was the villain who had locked her mother in a lantern after she'd betrayed Peter Pan. Patrick and Paige are equally shell-shocked, but also slightly angry to encounter their father's arch-nemesis. Jay and Carlos, who already knew that Killian was a good guy and how he actually lost his hand, they still cringe at the display but are also slightly fascinated by how battle-worn it looked. Mal and Evie seem sympathetic, wondering how painful it must be to wear that harness every single day. The famed pirate makes sure that teenagers locked in the room can see it. They whisper to one another, slowly confirming that this is indeed Captain Hook.

"Enough proof for you?" Killian asks.

"That looks painful," Jane says sympathetically.

"It can be Lass, but remember, I've had 200 years to get used to it."

"200 years?!" Jordan speaks up. "How are you still so young looking?"

"200 years in Neverland, does wonders to the ageing process," Crystal snickers.

"And let me guess, you were hunting my father during all that time?" Patrick snaps, ready to make the pirate pay for the hell he'd put their father through. He cracks his knuckles and prepares to charge, before Jay steps in the kid's way, trying to save Killian from being attacked by the twins. Paige is still very confused by everything and merely stays behind her brother, she was never the violent one anyways.

"Dude chill, it's actually not what you think," Jay says calmly.

"How could it not be what I think? That man has been trying to kill my father for years!"

"My mom also has a thing or two to say to you too," Tallia adds, a scary sharpness in her voice. It's Ally's turn to try and restrain the fairy daughter from taking a swing at the pirate.

"Guys listen, you've got it all wrong," Mal says. "Killian here isn't a villain."

"Killian?" a teen pirate calls from the room. "I thought his name was James Hook?"

"No, in this realm, his name is Killian and he's not a villain," Snow says, trying to go back to her point.

"How could he not be a villain?" Paige asks, not quite matching her brother's level of rage and trying to help Jay keep Patrick restrained.

"He isn't," Carlos adds.

"And he actually wasn't trying to kill Peter Pan here; he was trying to kill my father," Crystal says.

This puts the whole room in a pause, Patrick and Tallia look confused.

"Who is your father?" Lonnie asks.

"Rumpelstiltskin,"

"Who?"

"He's a fairy tale from this world, in the Land Without Magic, people outside of Storybrooke think all of our stories are made up," Ben explains, trying to help clarify everything.

"What? How?" Jordan asks.

"It's complicated," Ben answers.

"How? How can it be complicated? We all exist and clearly, they all exist, how can we be made up?" Tia asks, trying to process everything.

"Even we can't fully explain that," David says, putting his arm around his wife. "But here, we're all real and we're all heroes. As my wife was going to say, Killian Jones is a hero. He was once the pirate we all know, swords, rum, and all but he's proven himself time and time again to be a true hero. He once sacrificed his life for the sake of the town."

 _After trying to destroy it by letting the Dark Ones in_ , those from Storybrooke think to themselves, but that would just dampen the point they were trying to make.

"He even helped defeat Hades, the lord of the Underworld," Snow adds. "He is now married to our daughter, Emma, proof of their true love, and they are expecting their first baby."

Emma and Killian hold up their hands to reveal the wedding bands on their fingers and then the Saviour puts her hand over her growing child, even though it wasn't visible yet.

Tallia and Patrick stop their attempted fighting against their friends to punch Captain Hook and look on with wide eyes. Everyone else seems unsure of what to think, except for the War Frats, they just snicker to one another about Captain Hook actually getting married and having a family.

"Gone soft on us have you Jones?" Jonas laughs through the door.

Killian gives them a firm, menacing glare and holds his hook up, which is now back in its proper place. He lets the hospital lights catch the tool and shine it towards the juveniles. This gets them all to shut up and look away in slight fear. The alternate Captain Hook feels satisfied that despite being a hero, he can still frighten enemies.

"How… how can a villain become a hero?" Audrey questions. "How can anyone like that… change?"

"It's definitely not easy Lass," Killian admits.

"It takes time," Regina agrees. "And lots of practice."

"And how can Emma be your daughter?" Ally asks curiously. "She looks almost the same age as you."

Suddenly, Gordan's stomach behinds to growl loudly. All his cousins, including Doug, knew that if the son of Grumpy didn't get food, he would be ten times worse than his own father.

"How about we get the new kids _Granny's_ for lunch and explain everything?" Emma says.

"But _Granny's_ isn't big enough for all of them," David points out.

"How about Henry's park?" Regina suggests. "There is enough room there and a couple of these guys can blow of steam if they want to."

"Regina, they're all teenagers, they won't want to play at the park," Emma says.

"Whatever; Snow, David, and Zelena can go pick up lunch with the kids," the former Evil Queen says, trying to get a plan together.

"What should we get them?"

"Just basic burgers and fries, I seriously doubt they will care what they eat after eating the stuff here," Crystal shrugs.

"And Guyliner, Emma, Crystal and I will get the kids organized. Mal and her friends can help build the trust and hopefully get everyone out of here."

"What about finding parents?" Crystal asks.

"What do you mean?" Regina asks.

"I mean I've already texted Ashley and Thomas to pick up their pill of a son and I've also got Aurora and Phillip coming, along with Blue, Sidney, August, and the dwarves."

"Why did you do that?" Emma snaps, slightly annoyed about how impulsive Crystal has been.

"I figured it's the best way to make sure everyone will have a place to sleep tonight because there's no way _Granny's_ is going to be big enough."

"Okay fine, but you are in charge of explaining the situation to the parents…"

"Alternate parents,"

"Fine, let's just get these kids out of the hospital!"


	54. Chapter 53: Parental Rules

Chapter 53: Parental Rules

"All right everyone listen up!" Regina calls out to the children of Auradon and the Isle. She uses her sharp queenly authority to ensure that all eyes were on her.

An immediate silence sweeps over the group since all of them now knew who this woman was and did not want to be on her bad side. While most of the students from Auradon Prep were extremely skeptical to the claims that this villain is actually a hero; they knew better than to disobey or anger this royal.

"I'm sure that most of you are hungry and let's face it, Whale's menu in this place is less than ideal."

"I heard that!" the doctor calls from down the hall. "And it's not my fault the food here sucks!" Crystal and Regina can't hide the smiles on their faces. The creepy doctor who sews body parts together deserved to be the butt of a few jokes now and again.

"I would've preferred Gene Wilder as my Frankenstein," Crystal smirks to herself. "He makes the concept of being a doctor funnier and with a lot less alcohol involved." Her reference is of course lost on the kids from Auradon as well as Killian, but both Regina and Emma smile at the reference. Emma reminds herself to show her husband the satirical movie when they have free time. She then cranes her neck to call after Whale again… "Sorry, Frau Blucher,"

The sound of horses is then heard from the girl's phone as she'd brought up an infamous movie clip for the select few people's amusements.

"Getting back to the task at hand… We'd like to take everyone out of the hospital and give you all a decent meal…"

Many of the students smile in relief and happiness at this idea.

"However, in order to have this meal, I am laying down some ground rules. I need everyone, and I mean ** _everyone_** to listen to this." The former Evil Queen looks directly at the door, which is still open a crack, so the War Frats could hear this. "Rule Number One: Anyone who is seen with a sword in their hands or caught fighting will be detained by Sheriff and Deputy Jones."

Emma and Killian flash their badges to the kids.

"They're the law enforcement in town and anyone who breaks this rule will be thrown into prison."

"Also known as the brig," Killian clarifies to the pirates in the adjacent room.

"Your captain's already in there," Mal smirks, feeling such great pleasure that Uma was where she rightfully belonged. "And she's not getting out any time soon."

A few of the War Frats sneer angrily at the purple-haired girl's remarks. Mal crosses her arms and smiles with deep satisfaction

"Rule Number Two: no one is allowed to go anywhere in town alone."

"Why?" Jordan asks.

"Well, firstly, none of you know anything about this town and secondly, Storybrooke has a large amount of woods, if you wander off, it might take a while to for us to find you, even with magic," Regina explains. "Rule Number Three: No stealing or damaging anything in town. Once again, you will be thrown in prison."

"Why do I feel as if this is directed at us?" Jonas calls out from the room.

"Because it is," Carlos snaps. "None of you have ever been off the Isle and you can't just do or take whatever you want."

"Why not?" Gil asks,

"Yeah, that takes all the fun out of it," Bonny says, practically whining.

"Fine, you can stay here and eat the crummy food that the hospital provides," Regina shrugs. "If you would really like, I have a 'brig' in the basement where your food will be served through a metal slot in the door. Just ask my sister about what it's like down there… And we will ensure that none of you get out until we fix the portal problem and send you all home."

"Emma and Killian could arrest all of you right now for helping kidnap Ben," Mal adds. She swallows a lump in her throat and gazes in the King's eyes for a few moments. She can see the hesitation in them too. Neither of them really knew what had happened to their relationship, after all, things were so much more complicated now. They never seemed to find time to even talk about their relationship. The daughter of Maleficent then goes to stand next to her friends, who knew that they were likely going to be the ones to keep the War Frats in check.

Uma's crew look at one another on the opposite side of the door. Gonzo's stomach growls like it has been all morning. All of them are hesitating at their choices, none of them seemed particularly fair to them. The thought of eating horrible hospital food or being thrown down into the basement for who knows how long was not appealing but having to follow all those dumb rules isn't either. At least

"Think of it as a temporary truce," Emma offers. "You're all here, in the same boat so you may as well enjoy the freedom that you've been given because from Ben and Mal have been telling us, you guys don't get off the Isle much."

Again, the crew hesitates, they wonder about what their next move should be; they didn't have Uma or Harry here and they usually called the shots. Typically, Uma would resist the rules, they meant nothing anyways and were made to be broken. It wasn't the pirate way, but with Uma already locked up in the brig and who knows where Harry is, none of them want to be put in another prison.

"Rule Number Four: no one interrupts me again," Regina says sharply, looking directly at Chad. The son of Cinderella and Prince Charming swallows very hard and cowers behind Audrey a bit. "Because you don't want to see me when I'm angry."

"And Rule Number Five: no more complaining; we know you guys are scared and far from home. Trust me, we've all been there. All of us are working our very hardest to get all of you home, but that is going to take some time, so we need you all to be patient," Emma finishes, trying to nullify Regina's previous abstract threat. "Do we have a deal?"

As the VKs and AKs look around at one another, unsure of their future or what is going to happen next. A lot of them are afraid of this place, being so far from Auradon and to be around these former villains. It's a lot to just take the Evil Queen's and Captain Hook's word for it. Was any of this safe? Were they going to keep their promise? Many hesitate, especially the War Frats trapped in the back-hospital room.

After the group gets everybody's names, Crystal's phone buzzes in her pocket, and she sees the text from Ella/Ashley. She knows it is time for her to go and explain the complicated situation to them and she prays that some of the parents are willing to accept these children into their homes for the time being.

"I've got to go deal with the p-a-r-e-n-t-s," she whispers. "I'll meet you guys at the park."

Before anyone can say anything, the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin snaps her fingers and vanishes from the room, much to the shock of the students of the other realm.

…

"We… have a son?" Ella says in pure disbelief. She and Thomas had received a very vague text message from Crystal to meet her in the park to talk about their son. They were extremely confused since Crystal knew that the couple had a daughter named Alexandra, whom the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin would babysit from time to time and helped run Baby Time with the princess who had lost her glass slipper. Both parents had packed up their daughter and come to the edge of Henry's park to get more information. Belle had joined her step-daughter, with Gideon in tow and she now stands next Crystal. Several of the dwarves were already there, including Leroy and Dopey. Blue had appeared with several other of the sisters/fairies. Aurora and Phillip had also appeared with their tiny son, along with Archie, Marco, August, Granny, and few other people from town. Some of the citizens of Storybrooke just wanted an explanation for what had happened yesterday and what was going to happen next. Everything had seemed so peaceful and mundane for quite some time, so to have these strange children suddenly appear through a portal, word had travelled very quickly. Everyone now stood at the edge of the town park as the daughter of the Dark One sat on top of some climbing equipment, ready to explain the complicated situation.

"An alternate son," Crystal explains. "Apparently there's a realm known as Auradon where many of these kids have alternate versions of you, as parents."

"That doesn't make any sense," Sneezy points out before he blows his nose in a handkerchief.

"Believe me, a lot of this is just as crazy. Get this, I basically have another half-brother. He's the son of King Beast and Queen Belle, which basically makes him Gideon's big brother."

"Wait, wait, wait," August says, trying to comprehend everything. "So, in some other universe, Rumpelstiltskin was a king? Is this realm the place where everything is completely backwards?"

"We're not really sure about that, we know that Belle is his mom, but in another realm, she found someone much more decent than my father," Crystal shrugs. Belle shoots a glare at her and the girl smirks. "Just try to tell me I'm wrong,"

"This is wonderful, so now I have a grandson?" Marco asks.

"Yes, the kid's name is Pin, I'm assuming it's a short version of Pinocchio, and along with Jane, who is your daughter Blue, of course, I'm just spitballing here. And seven sons for seven dwarves."

"So, what do you want us to do then?" Leroy asks, still trying to process the fact that he has a son.

"Well, the first thing we need to do is convince a few more people to come to this realm."

"What? Why?" Blue asks.

"Well, Mulan has two kids and she's back in the Enchanted Forest. Tinkerbelle has a daughter who definitely needs some mother's love, Aladdin and Jasmine have a son, so do Ariel and Eric, and I think we need to bring Ursula here, she's a got a daughter who definitely needs some parental guidance."

"Is she the punk who robbed my pharmacy yesterday?" Sneezy asks, his voice becoming raised in anger. "Do you know how much stuff she stole from me?"

"We're well aware of it Sneeze, and she's locked up in the sheriff's station and I figure the best way to help her is to have her mom bail her out."

"I think that is a very bad idea," Leroy says. "We already had enough trouble with that witch once, we don't need her here again."

"She's not a villain anymore," Archie says firmly. "She got her happy ending, don't you remember?"

"Still no reason to bring back that queen of darkness."

"Someone mention me?" a new voice calls out. Everyone turns to see a dragon mother and her daughter approach the group. "Now what's this about me having another daughter?"

 _A/N: Guess who's joined the party? Sorry for the delay with publishing a new chapter, I've been busy with assignments. Teacher's college is not easy. Thank for everyone's continued support and reviews, it means a lot to me._


	55. Chapter 54: Mother-Daughter

Chapter 54: Mother-Daughter

"Hello Maleficent," Archie says.

The Mistress of all Evil stands in the group of potential parents, with her daughter Lily standing with her. The daughter of Maleficent looks less than pleased to be with these people. Both Belle and Crystal can tell that see that her eyes are flickering gold every so often, meaning that she's struggling to keep the inner dragon in check. Everyone stares at Maleficent as she steps forward to talk to the speaker.

"Hello everyone, now will someone please tell me what in the world is going on?" the mistress of all evil asks.

"I'll give you the short version, a bunch of kids from a realm known as Auradon accidentally came through the portal I made yesterday. Many of the kids are alternate sons and daughters of many people here, and that includes you," Crystal explains.

"I have another daughter?" Maleficent says, brushing some blonde curls out of her face. "And what is her name?"

"Mal..." Crystal.

"That's it?" Lily scoffs in apparent amusement. "What a name!"

"Is it short for anything?" the former horned villainess asks.

"We're not really sure," Belle answers. "I don't even think she knows."

"What's she like?" Maleficent asks calmly.

"She's spunky, very headstrong, a born leader, stubborn, a bit angry, but also very kind,"

"Did the horns get passed down to her?" Lily snorts from a distance.

"Well, you can meet her right now Lily," Emma says, walking up with Killian, Regina, and the rest of the group.

The entire crowd goes absolutely silent, no one says a word and one could hear a pin drop. Many of the Storybrooke patrons' eyes go wide in shock as the group of teenagers approaches the park. Those from Auradon and the Isle look on nervously, scanning each face to figure out which one might be their alternate parent. The tension between the two worlds could easily be cut with a sword. Most of the Isle kids are twitching slightly, becoming a bit antsy and wanting to run away, but the problem is... where would they go? How would they get food for themselves and more importantly where would they sleep at night? They would also catch warning glances from Captain Hook a few times. He was allowed to keep his cutlass and he would shine his hook at the group of pirate misfits to keep them in line.

Leading the group is Mal, Evie, Jay, Carlos, Ben, Jane, and Dizzy. More than half of them have already met their alternate guardians.

"I feel like we should have brought name tags," Crystal jokes under her breath.

"Should we just go one at a time then?" Regina suggests. She puts her hand on Mal's shoulder and encourages the teenager to walk with her. The former Evil Queen walks with the daughter of Maleficent up to her former rival and stops.

"Mal, this is Maleficent, your mother. Maleficent, this is your daughter from another realm, Mal."

The purple-haired teenager takes a moment to scan this woman up and down. From her bright blue eyes to her blonde curly hair tucked under some fancy hat and a rather plain matching outfit, this outward appearance has the young girl do a double-take. This couldn't be her mom, she looked too... normal. The mother she knew had big horns, wore elaborate robes that resembled flames, had heavy purple makeup on her face, carried a staff with her, and always had a wicked grin on her face. This woman looks at Mal with an almost kind and curious look; not at all disapproving of her "daughter."

Maleficent's bright blue eyes examine the young girl and she purses her lips into a thin and awkward smile. She wasn't sure how to respond to this girl, who is dressed like a punk rocker; purple hair, and all. There was not much resemblance, except maybe in the facial features, but then again, Lily did not resemble her mother much either. Both daughters must have taken after their fathers in appearance. While still processing the news, the Mistress of all Evil holds out her hand.

"A pleasure to meet you Mal," she says softly.

The daughter of Maleficent swallows hard, not expecting such a formal greeting; usually, her mother on the Isle would expect anyone who met her to bow at her feet. She takes the woman's hand and gives a good shake.

"Likewise," the teenager finally responds.

"And I would also like you to meet your sister... I suppose," the blonde woman turns to where Lily is standing and signals her to come over.

Mal follows her alternate mother's gaze and her green eyes meet her "sisters." Both women immediately recognize each other from earlier in the day. It now becomes clear to both of them why they seemed so drawn to one another, they were related... they were sisters.

Lily bites her lip hard, almost to the point of drawing blood as she stares at the younger purple-haired freak. Her mind is a whirlwind of emotions at the sight of this intruder to their land. Some weirdo from a place called Auradon suddenly appears and claims to be the daughter of her mother. None of this could be true; Lily Page was the daughter of Maleficent, plain, and simple.

She hadn't even met her mother in 30 years because of Snow White and Prince Charming transferring all their potential darkness from Emma to her and then she had barely hatched from her egg before she was forced through a portal where there was no magic, dark, or otherwise. This way she would not cause potential harm to other people of the Enchanted Forest. She grew up in a home with a family, but bad luck followed her everywhere she went because of that darkness. By some strange and bizarre twist of fate, she met Emma a few times and the two were friends for a time, but then the bad luck returned causing both girls to hate each other and leaving Lily lonely again. She'd plotted and planned for years to kill the prince and princess that did this to her and it's only when the Evil Queen and Emma came looking for her, did that darkness fully blossom and she wanted her revenge. Emma had threatened to kill her because Lily had threatened her parents. Even after she met her mother for the first time, Lily went full dragon and tried to kill those who wronged her. It wasn't until Maleficent convinced her daughter to not waste time on vengeance because they'd already lost so much. The two women had bonded since then and were planning to go and find her father eventually, but the snag was that Maleficent couldn't leave town without dying again because Emma had killed the mistress of all evil in dragon form. It was only through the blood of those who wronged her, Snow and Charming, was the horned queen of darkness able to return to life.

She sucks in a deep breath as she looks away from Mal and into her mother's eyes.

"Lillith, come over and meet your sister."

For a moment, Lily's eyes flash gold as she struggled to keep the deep rage felt inside her in check. She doesn't want to meet Mal, she wants nothing to do with this imposter, but upon seeing the insistence in Maleficent's eyes, she stubbornly walks forward. She stops next to her mother and waits for a reaction.

"Mal, this is Lillith, I suppose that you are now technically sisters."

Mal can feel the awkward tension between all three of them, most of it radiating from Lily. The teenager had seen her "sister's" eyes flash gold for a moment, and if they were both daughters of Maleficent, she knew what that meant. The purple-haired girl hesitates before offering a leather-gloved hand for the woman to shake.

Lily's teeth grind together and she tosses some of her dark hair from her face. She sucks in a very deep breath before taking the girl's hand. They shake; some could say a little too hard as Mal can feel the tightening of her "sister's" grip. For a moment, she swears she can hear Lily growling. The two are finally released from each other's grip.

"Hello Lily," Mal offers, trying to break the tension.

"Hello Mal..." the dark-haired daughter says.

Snow, David, Zelena, and Harry Hook walk up to the groups, carrying several big paper bags filled with food. Many of the kids from Auradon and the Isle look over and can feel their desire to eat.

Suddenly, there's a loud sound the interrupts the current events. It's metallic in nature and everyone begins searching for its source. Eyes eventually fall on Jordan as she holds her lamp out in front of here. Something is shaking from inside Jordan's lamp. The genie opens the lid and a bright flash of light practically blinds anyone who is looking at it.

When the light fades, two more teenagers stand amongst the group from Auradon. One girl is slender and tanned with golden-brown eyes, pale ruby lips, and dirty blonde hair with golden highlights tied into a heavy ponytail. Braided into her hair are small red, green, and blue beads. She wears a scarlet red coat with three black straps and golden buttons on the sleeves. Underneath the coat she wears a white blouse tucked into a pair of grey short-shorts. She also wears leggings with a pattern of a map of Neverland sewn into the fabric. She also wears knee-high high-heeled boots like look like they're made with golden flourishes on the top fold and a silver buckle.

The second girl is also slender, with dark-skinned and greenish-yellow eyes that look around in confusion. She has pink lips and long black hair with light gray highlights tied in pigtails. She has four dot markings on each cheek and has two violet streaks across her right eyebrow. She wears a small amaranth purple top hat with blue feathers, a scarlet dress with puffy short sleeves, and an amaranth purple waistcoat with gold lining and buttons with red and green feathers on the left side collar. She wears fading purple tights with face patterns that resemble dark Halloween creatures and stands in black and white wedge heel shoes. There are two golden vine bracelets around her wrists and a flower-like a medallion around her neck.

Those from Storybrooke and Auradon are immediately taken aback by this sudden appearance as the blonde teenager stretches out and grins happily.

"Man, am I glad to be out of there. Travelling by lamp is in no way good for your back. Totally, does ruin the element of surprise Freddie."

"I told you the charm would only last twenty-four hours," the other girl responds.

Harry's eyes are wide in horror and he ends up dropping the bag of food he was carrying onto the ground.

"CJ?" he gasps.

"Hey, big brother, what's with the shindig going on here. This isn't Auradon."

"Freddie?" Mal asks, still trying to process what has just happened. "What... what are you doing here?"

"CJ blackmailed me into putting us in Jordan's lamp I swear. Don't ask me why she wanted this, but she kept saying something about a sneak attack," the dark-haired girl says, trying not to upset her friends.

"Would someone please explain to us what just happened?" Regina demands sharply.

"Oh yeah, Emma, Killian, this is CJ, your daughter," Carlos says.

 _A/N: Here you are danifan3000, two new faces have arrived in Storybrooke, which means twice the problems for Emma and Killian. This is for fans of the Descendants tv show. I would like to acknowledge that yes I know that the Blue Fairy is technically not Jane's mother, but since Rumpel killed the real fairy godmother for Cinderella, the leader of the fairies will act as a surrogate mother. I think Jane living with the sisters of the convent will help her understand her fairy powers._


	56. Chapter 55: CJ Trouble

Chapter 55: CJ Trouble

"Bloody hell," Killian mutters, running his good hand through his hair, staring at the young blonde teenager. Both Emma and her pirate husband remembered the VKs mentioning that Captain Hook had three kids, two daughters and a son, but until now, they thought they only had to deal with one unruly teen pirate and they had just managed to subdue his behaviour with some proper parenting. The couple could tell that this girl was probably twice as worse as her brother.

"Who are these losers? And where's Auradon castle?" CJ asks, completely confused and a little upset her sneak attack was ruined.

Freddie ignores the pirate and turns to her VK friends. "Guys I swear, she blackmailed me into this. She found out I was still using my dad's spellbook instead of donating it to the museum. I only needed it to complete a science project. I don't know why she wanted to hide in the lamp again, but you know spells only last so long."

"Don't worry Freddie, CJ being here is the least of our problems right now," Mal reassures her.

"Speaking of which, where are we?" the voodoo student asks, gazing around at the forest and the people watching them.

"Welcome to Storybrooke, Maine," Jay says.

"Where's that? I've never heard of it."

"It's in an alternate realm," Evie explains. "Where things are much different than you might think."

"Different how?"

"Well, for one thing, CJ and Harry's dad is a hero, married, and has another baby on the way," Carlos says, nodding towards Emma and Killian.

Both stowaways look on in shock and disbelief. They turn towards the blonde Saviour and her husband. Emma slowly puts the hand with her wedding ring on it against her barely visible stomach. Killian wraps his arms around his wife and gently places his hook against her hip to support her.

"That's not possible," CJ scoffs. "My dad is not a hero. Not even close. He's a real jerk and he owns that stupid bait shop on the Isle. How did he get here and why is he married to her?"

"Well that's a boost to the old ego," Killian mutters sarcastically. "I'm not your father lass, I'm a version of your father."

"A much better one," Crystal adds.

CJ snorts in derision. "My father is one of the greatest villains on the Isle of the Lost. No one is better than him."

"Please don't start that debate," Evie groans, not wanting to get all the Villain kids riled up and start arguing about whose parent is the best villain of all time.

"Can we please have the food?" Chad practically barks. "I'm seriously starving over here."

Snow glares at Chad for being so rude and Zelena rolls her eyes. If she still had her magic, she had the right to turn the little wretch into a cockroach or maybe a flying monkey, whatever she might fancy.

"I thought princes were supposed to have manners," Tallia says. She lines up with Ally, Pin, Audrey, Jordan, and Herkie to get food.

David, Snow, Zelena, and Harry, who picked up the bag he dropped bring the food, bring the meals over to a picnic table. The AK kids form a line as they would in the cafeteria at school, except Gil, the other War Frats, and CJ who butt in front of the other kids, greedily going for food.

"HEY!" Audrey barks but backs off when Bonny glares menacingly at her.

However, Snow will not be intimidated by the disobedient teenagers. She immediately removes the food from the greedy pirates' grasps.

"None of you are getting any until you wait your turn."

"A concept that is foreign to them no doubt," Crystal smirks, sitting on a nearby picnic table.

The teen pirates look at Snow White like she's sprouted a second head. She insists on taking their food away because they didn't wait their turn? What in the world did that mean? Their first instinct is to go for their swords, except as part of their deal to get any nourishment, the weapons were given to the Evil Queen, all except CJ, who draws her cutlass in defiance. She points it at the teacher, wanting her food immediately. The other pirates' grin, happy that someone was not part of the deal made and would stand up for them.

Regina, Emma, Blue, and Crystal are immediately on the defensive, ready to teleport the sword away; Killian breaks out his own sword, wondering if he's going to have to fight another one of his children to gain respect and submission, but Snow doesn't miss a beat. She has faced far worse than a measly sword wielded by a teenager. She's faced the Lord of the Underworld, a wicked witch who stole her newborn son and nearly being executed and/or slaughtered multiple times by the former Evil Queen.

"You think that butter knife is going to scare me?" she offers, refusing to give in to the greedy pirate's demands.

"You want to lose your head Duchess?" the blonde teen challenges.

David goes to stand next to his wife. He doesn't have his sword, but he will do anything to protect his wife.

"No David, it's okay," she says firmly, her hazel eyes lasering into CJ's brown ones. She will never be intimidated by a mere teenager, no matter how sharp their weapon may be. "This girl needs to learn a little discipline."

"Discipline my foot, listen here Duchess, I don't listen to anyone. No one tells me what to do. I do what I want when I want to."

"Well that will certainly have to change if you want to remain here and not end up like your friend Uma," the former princess says.

"Like I care what happens to Uma, she's the weak link anyways,"

The pirate crew gasps in horror, never expecting one of their own to speak against a captain. Their pleasure at a VK being defiant has changed to shock and a little bit of resentment. If Uma found out that CJ said that she was weak, it would-be all-out war.

"That confidence will still not get you any food," Snow says.

"Mom just let me poof her sword away," Emma says.

"No Emma, then she won't learn anything. If she thinks that she is such a great pirate, I'm willing to take her up on that. If you think you are such a great bandit, how about a little competition? CJ is it?"

"It's short for Calista Jane," Harry whispers.

His sister glares at him, hating that he told someone her real name.

He feels a bit torn about whether to step in and protect his little sister. This is also a dose of reality for him, did he act this ignorant when he fought his father? He figured it was easier to stay out of this; CJ was a stubborn girl, always had been even as a kid. She would often refuse to share any of her toys with anyone else, she never ate any vegetables if their father told her to, and not once go to bed on time. She once stayed up for three days straight after Captain Hook had told her to go to bed early. He figured if anyone had the guts to speak against Uma and call the daughter of Ursula weak, she deserved to be taken down a few pegs.

"Well, Calista, I'm prepared to challenge you to a little competition."

"What do get when I win?" the blonde pirate asks, grinding her teeth at the fact someone used her real name.

"All the food you can eat, free of charge. But if I win, you drop that attitude, you follow our rules, and you wait your turn like everyone else."

"Deal," the young teenager says shaking hands with the teacher. "Let's see what you got Duchess!"

"Great does this mean we're not eating at all?" Chad moans.

 _A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update, busy with assignments and such. Also, sorry if this chapter is a bit shorter. I also need ideas for this upcoming competition. I know Snow it great with a bow and CJ is more of sword girl, but I need a way for Snow to show up CJ and deflate her ego a bit._


	57. Chapter 56: Pirate vs Princess

Chapter 56: Pirate vs. Princess

"Mom I really think this is a bad idea," Emma says. She and Killian stand with her parents as Snow prepares to take on CJ in an apparent duel.

"Emma, she needs to learn to respect people, especially adults."

"Well, technically since she is our daughter, shouldn't we be dealing with this?" the blonde asks.

"I'm just making it a little easier for you to handle her," Snow says. She's changed into more comfortable clothing for the battle. She also had Regina poof up her bow and arrow too, even though they would be mostly fighting with swords. David had bequeathed his own sword to his wife to use, while everyone else watched the arrogant teenager sharpen her cutlass while being cheered on by the rest of Uma's crew, all except Harry, he keeps his distance from all of this commotion.

"Besides, aren't you better with a bow? Isn't that your weapon of choice?" Belle asks as she burps Gideon against her shoulder.

"You don't think that during all that time I spent as a bandit that I didn't learn to use multiple weapons? It wasn't until David and I married that he showed me the best way around a sword."

"Not that you ever needed help," he says. "You knew your way around more than one sword."

The couple grin at the lewd innuendo, David wraps his arm tightly around his wife's waist, trying not to laugh and Emma bites her lip before groaning loudly, completely and utterly mortified. Apparently, she was never too old to be embarrassed by her own parents. Guess they were not above making a dirty joke, especially when their son wasn't around.

"I can get Calista to shape up no problem," she says

"Aye, I don't doubt that you can put up a fight dear Snow, but she has likely grown up on a pirate ship, sword fighting is second-nature to anyone who's been born close to the water. And if she truly is my daughter… let's just say she's been fighting since before she could walk."

"e's not wrong," Harry says, coming up to the group with a burger in his hands. Despite CJ's fight for food, all the other kids are being fed. Mostly to shut Chad Charming up so he wouldn't continue to complain. Only a little bit of _Granny's_ food has been saved for the victor of this competition. "Me mum always said she was fightin' the moment she came out of the womb."

"Mrs. Snow," Dizzy says, swallowing very hard. "Are you sure you'll be okay? I mean, I don't mean to doubt you, but I know the Isle pirates and their fighting is pretty brutal. And what about your son, he won't want you to get hurt, will he?"

Snow smiles and leans down to Dizzy's level. "I appreciate the concern Dizzy, but I'll be perfectly fine. Don't you worry about me, remember, I may be a princess, but I'm far from helpless"

"We always worry about you," Regina mutters. She knew that Snow would be victorious, in fact, everyone in Storybrooke did. Snow had many more years of experience than CJ, plus she didn't have the teenager's arrogance or over-confidence. However, the VKs and the AK were all extremely skeptical about it, especially Simon and Whitney. When they learned that this woman was their alternate mother, they became worried. The mother they knew back in Auradon was a very elegant woman, a real queenly monarch of style, grace, purity, and sweetness; they had never seen their mother ever get angry or even hold a weapon. She preferred diplomatic solutions even when the twins were little and would fight over their toys. The fact that this Snow White is more than willing to challenge an Isle child, is completely foreign to them.

Of course, on the other side of the battle, the War Frats were extremely happy that they're finally going to see some violence. While it may not be them fighting, at least one of their own is standing up to royalty and are giving them "what for." Who would ever think that dainty Snow White, a princess who talks to animals, could ever beat a pirate in a sword fight, let alone even hold a sword? The idea is laughable to all of them, and CJ felt like she had this victory in the bag. Once she won, she and the Frats could do whatever they wanted, including blowing this popsicle stand.

"You ready for this Duchess?" CJ calls out, shaking some of her blonde hair from her face. "Let's see if you can fight."

David reaches over, holds both of Snow's shoulders tightly and kisses her deeply. She tries not to smile as she savours the taste of his lips.

"Enough with the PDA!" Gil calls out. "Let's see a fight!"

CJ and Snow take their positions. Killian, unfortunately, must be the referee for this duel, considering his long career of them. Both women cross their swords, and Killian holds both tips of the weapons with his hook. He stares at his mother-in-law and then at his alternate daughter with some worry

"You sure I can't talk you out of it?" he asks Snow.

"Let's see who's the real Duchess around here," the teacher says, with a large smile on her face.

"All right, The rules: no blood."

The War Frats boo at this rule, but Captain Hook ignores them and continues. CJ groans in slight disappointment.

"Way to wussify the fight," she says snarkily.

"As I said, keep it clean, first one to disarm the other is the victor. Any further attacks on the unarmed will garner immediate magical intervention by the Saviour, the Evil Queen, or the Dark One's daughter." He stares heavily at CJ, who rolls her eyes and tries to remain focused. "Do I make myself clear?"

"Come on old man, you're boring us here!" Jonas shouts.

Killian gives a death stare at the unruly teenagers before turning back to the duelling parties.

"On my mark… Begin!" he releases his hook and immediately steps back.

CJ impulsively takes the first swing, trying to take out the princess as quickly as possible, however, Snow easily blocks her. The teacher waits patiently as the blonde pirate steps back after their swords scraped against one another and she takes a lower swing. Once again, the women with raven-hair blocks, fending off the attack with little to no effort.

The crowd has become silent, with the exception of the Isle pirates who are shouting and sounds of metal on metal. Snow and CJ continue to circle one another in perfect formation, neither afraid as their weapons continue to clash against each other.

Regina bites her lip in great annoyance of hearing the shouting; she should have the right to take away their voices just to shut them up. They all needed a great deal of discipline, but she was unsure if she wanted to even try with these kids. Evie stands next to her mother, Doug having wrapped his arm around his girlfriend tightly. The daughter of the Evil Queen saw this fight as completely pointless and also wished that the pirates would shut up.

Mal and her friends stand next to a nearby picnic table, thoroughly impressed by Snow White's fighting stance. At one point, Ben leans over and whispers to her.

"She'd make an awesome coach for our _Swords and Shields_ team,"

All the daughter of Maleficent can do is nod.

Meanwhile, Lily is praying that Snow White is disarmed, serves her right for being overconfident. That woman always got exactly what she wanted, and it was time she was taken down a few pegs. Next, to her, Maleficent is hardly paying attention to the fight but continues to stare at her new daughter, wondering how in the world was she going to bond with her. Was she even allowed to bond with her? What were the children from Auradon's current situation? Would they be leaving extremely soon? The thought of having another daughter greatly excited the former Mistress of all Evil. Her bonding with Lily had been a very slow process, mostly due to her daughter already being grown up, having her own opinions and ideas, but Mal was different, while she was a teenager, she was still growing and perhaps some good motherly advice would suit the purple-haired child.

Many of the AKs have finished their lunches and are also very impressed by how the Queen Snow White of this realm can hold her own in a fight.

Emma and Killian just hold each other, Killian's hook placed gently near his wife's growing baby bump and Emma leans into her husband's chest, seriously questioning all this. She's become worried that both of them are going to be pretty crummy parents if her mother has to step in to discipline the selfish little girl who thought she was amazing. While Killian had easily handled Harry to subdue his attitude, and she had raised Henry with Regina through the rebellious teenage years, she still worries about the little life growing inside of her. Could she be a good parent to the little boy or girl in her womb? None of them had ever done the diapers or the late-night feedings and it scared her; if they couldn't handle two disobedient children, then how could they raise a new baby? Killian kisses her neck gently to relax her, feeling the tension in her stance. He too had his worries about their future little ula, which is their little "sea jewel", but he had no doubt that Swan would be a wonderful mother to him or her. These "alternate" children were obviously raised very poorly by their real Captain Hook father and Killian vowed he would never raise his and Swan's child to be like Harry or Calista Jane. He'd had enough poor parenting from his own father.

Crystal and Harry end up sitting next to each other on one of the picnic tables, watching, while the girl of the group holds and plays with her baby brother. The young woman can feel her cheeks flushing slightly and her heart racing in her chest because she is sitting next to him. The heat seemed to radiate off this guy as he watches his sister battle a very fearsome opponent. For some reason, she becomes tempted to speak to him, just to make conversation and apparently ignore the fact that he's been actively stalking her.

"Snow's going to win you know," the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin says to him.

"I don't doubt it," the son of Captain Hook says.

Crystal looks at him shocked. "Really?"

"Aye, she knows her way around a blade much better than CJ."

"I'm surprised that you're not cheering with _The Goonies_ knock-offs over there."

While he didn't understand the film reference, Harry continues, "Believe it or not, but ah think Calista Jane needs te hae her ego deflated a wee bit."

"Really?"

"Aye, she's always been s bin daddy's wee favourite, if that is possible. Thinkin' she's the th' best thing since th' invention o' th' anchor."

"That must suck," she says sympathetically. Having grown up with solely her mother's attention, Crystal didn't know what it was like to have another sibling, that is until she came to town and now had to sometimes share her father's and step-mother's attention with Gideon. Of course, she was much too mature to truly be jealous and she loved her little brother with all her heart. She could, however, understand why people would become jealous and if the Isle Captain Hook was anything like the movie version, he would most likely play favourites, if at all. The baby of the family would like to be coddled the most, and Harry probably felt neglected in some ways, even though he was the only boy, someone who could bond more easily with his father-figure.

The big sister turns back to her brother as he gurgles happily from her arms. He reaches out and grabs a bit of her hair, but Crystal doesn't mind. The sweet display of affection between siblings seems to soften Harry Hook's face and he can't help but wish that he could be close to his sisters like that. Harriet hardly ever acknowledged that he existed when they were young, even though he followed her around constantly. But the way she ignored him or told him to get lost, he'd felt hurt and thought this is how all siblings were supposed to treat one another, so he did the same thing to CJ. Now, he sees something quite different, love between brother and sister, something he'd never seen before.

"Why is that?" she asks.

"Dad says that she reminds him most of our mother."

Crystal can actually see some sadness in the pirate's eyes and a little bit of envy. This is the first time she's seen some form of human emotion besides arrogance and outright cruelty from him. However, before she can ask another question, the battle takes a strange turn.

CJ grabs a low hanging branch from a nearby tree and uses it to propel herself up higher, thinking it will give her a better vantage point. Snow continues to fight, despite the girl having the higher ground. Eventually, the teenager climbs up onto the tree branch. She tries to appear to be tough and strategizing, but in reality, she is becoming tired and she needs a moment to rest. She's put 110% into this fight, just like her father always told her to do, but with all the energy she's invested into swinging her sword, she's begun to become worn out. She and Snow keep their eyes locked and the blonde girl smirks.

"Want to see who's the real bandit?" she taunts. She decides to continue climbing the tree, much like she would climb a mast. She wanted to make this battle a little more exciting and give her time to rest. There's no way that this "old woman" would climb the tree, it would damage her nails.

She turns away, the War Frats still cheering her on as she climbs higher and higher into the tree. Despite the height and her sore body, she feels like she can still win this duel no problem. All the bystanders crane their necks to see as she becomes smaller in the distance. Once she's up high enough that she's sure Snow White will not follow her, she perches herself on some shaky branches and turns to taunt her opponent.

However, when she looks down, there's no sign of the princess, merely spectators looking up at her. Had she given up, was she calling foul like Harriet often did when they used to sword fight? The height made her slightly dizzy, but she grasps her sword tightly, trying to gather her thoughts and rest.

"I usually think the forest is more my advantage," a voice behind the teenager which scares the living daylights out of CJ. The branches beneath her crocodile skin boots wobble dangerously.

The blonde pirate is horrified and shocked to see that Snow White is next to her in the tree, smiling mischievously and without a hint of fear.

"How… how…" she can barely get the words out she's in so much shock.

Snow doesn't say anything further, she uses her husband's sword to hook the handle of the girl's cutlass and send it falling to the ground.

Now disarmed, CJ lets out a slight squeak of fear, expecting the princess to draw blood or attack again, but Snow merely looks at the girl and says calmly.

"I win, great duel," she then offers her hand out to the girl for a fair shake.

However, at that moment, the branches that CJ had been standing on snap under her weight and she only manages to scream as she falls towards the ground. Snow has absolutely no time to try and grab her. All the teacher can do is shout:

"EMMA!"

The Saviour immediately rushes over and uses her magic to slow the girl's fall. Harry is panicking, and Killian is equally shocked and afraid, but once Calista Jane is caught in the wave of Emma's magic, they all appear slightly relieved. Emma slowly brings her down to the ground and places her on her feet. CJ is still panting in fear, the fact that she almost died, and her cheeks become red from embarrassment of losing the fight. Her heart is in her throat as she grabs the tree to steady herself. She's suddenly attacked with a hug by Harry. He holds his baby sister tightly, thanking the Lord that she was all right. While she's not used to the loving contact, the daughter of Captain Hook excepts it, happy to be alive.

Snow climbs down from the tree and goes to ensure that her former opponent is okay.

"Are you all right Calista Jane?"

The girl's brown eyes begin to produce tears from her brother's arms and she realizes that she's shaking out of fear. Emma and Killian both approach the siblings and Snow gently puts her hand on CJ's shoulder. The girl looks at Snow White and then at her "alternate" parents. She couldn't believe what this strange town had done already, turned her brother affectionate and had parents who were concerned for her well-being.

All she can do is nod at the princess and wait for her body to stop shaking. Most of the time, her father would yell and scream at her for being so afraid; in the pirate's business, she would face death on a daily basis and she had never been allowed to cry or show any type of fear before, but here no one was chastising her for being afraid that she had almost died.

The park area has become rather quiet, even the War Frats are a little stunned by everything; no one is cheering or booing over the fact that Snow White won, everyone is concerned for the young girl's safety, something none of the Isle kids had felt before.

Snow goes over and picks up CJ's cutlass. She goes over to the girl and in good spirit, offers it to her.

However, to everyone's surprised, Calista Jane refuses. Anyone who knew her would expect her to eagerly take the weapon back and demand a rematch, but this time, she just holds onto her brother tightly and just shakes her head.

"You won fair and square…" is all she can say, the statement slightly muffled by the fact that she's practically being smothered in Harry's arms.

Eventually, she becomes numb.

"Okay, okay that's enough," she says sassily, pushing out of the hug.

"Are you okay CJ?" Harry asks sternly.

She swallows and just nods.

"Good, I'm so glad you're okay." He says with relief, trying to show love towards his sister the way Crystal showed love to her little sibling.

"Now would you like a hamburger?" Snow White asked. "You most certainly have earned it."

 _A/N: Here's a nice long chapter for everyone. Hope you enjoy it._


	58. Chapter 57: Meet the Parents

Chapter 57: Meet the Parents

"Now that the excitement has been settled, perhaps further introductions are in order," Archie suggests.

"Grand idea," Killian agrees, keeping his arms around Emma tightly.

"And please no more fighting," David says. "We've had enough of that to last a while."

"With the War Frats I wouldn't make any promises," Carlos hisses to the prince.

"Which one is Cinderella?" Mal asks the main group of Storybrooke.

"The blonde woman and man, playing with the little girl in pigtails," Crystal directs the daughter of Maleficent.

Thomas and Ella are letting Alexandra toddle around the park now that the sword fighting has finished. Thomas takes his daughter up the slide and goes down with her, much to the toddler's delight. She lets out a happy giggle as Ella looks on happily before scooping her daughter up into her arms and kissing her multiple times with great affection.

Mal goes over to Chad, who's finally seemed to have run out of things to complain about now that he's out of the hospital and eaten. He sits on a picnic table, inspecting his nails when the VK comes over and grabs his arm, practically dragging him with her.

"Hey... what? What's the big idea Mal?!" he protests, trying to struggle from her grasp.

She doesn't answer but drags the spoiled prince to the slide and stops.

"Are you Cinderella?" Mal asks the woman.

"That's me, I also go by Ashley," she says as she puts Alexandra against her hip. "And this is Thomas or Sean."

"Why do you have two names?" Chad asks. At first, Mal just thinks he's being sarcastic but then she remembers that the son of Cinderella and Prince Charming has no idea about the history of Storybrooke or the alternate identities most of them have, so it was a legitimate question.

"The first ones are our real names and the second are our cursed names," Thomas explains.

"Curse? What curse?" Chad asks, slightly alarmed.

The daughter of Maleficent skips over his inquiry, figuring the parents can explain it and goes into the introductions.

"Well, this is Chad Charming, the son of Cinderella and Prince Charming, who I guess is technically your son too."

"But, my father's name is Henry, not Thomas, and I don't have a sister," he looks down at little Alexandra and winces slightly as if the innocent child is a snake that's about to spring at him. He is very confused by everything happening around him. He obviously does not react well to new situations, but Mal figures it's time for him to suck it up and just deal with things as they come. Life will not always be cushy and provide pampering in Auradon. The Isle kids learned from a very early age to expect the unexpected, something the kids of Auradon clearly have not had enough experience with so far. While those with magic seem to be better prepared, spoiled princes and princesses not so much.

"Well, neither did I until twenty minutes ago when I met her for the first time. A lot of things are different here than they are in Auradon and until Crystal and I fix the mess that Uma, Gil, and Harry made with the portals, you're just going to have to deal with it."

Alexandra then begins to smile and reach out eagerly towards Mal.

"Momma!" she says looking at her mother and then back at the purple-haired teenager, a sight she had never seen before. The little girl did not seem at all afraid of these strange people who a few minutes ago were watching a sword fight. She then begins to squirm frantically in her mother's arms and making a loud screeching that young two-year-olds are often known for. Once Ella puts her down, the tiny girl toddles over to Mal and holds her arms up.

"Up... Up...Up!" she insists in an adorable tiny voice.

Mal smiles and picks her up almost expertly, which was strange because she's never technically held babies before. She struggles at first because Alexandra keeps wiggling around until Ella comes over and shows the VK how to hold the tiny once comfortably.

Once she's against Mal's hip, Alexandra begins to grab at parts of the teenager's outfit, clearly having never seen anything like this before. She picks at the metal studs decorating her leather outfit before squeezing the leather sleeves and then eventually going for the hair. She twirls at the purple locks, absolutely transfixed by the colour. Ashley hovers nearby just in case her daughter tries to pull at the hair.

"She's usually a bit shyer than this," Thomas explains, coming up to join the group. "She must like you a lot."

"She's not hard to love," Mal says. She tickles Alexandra under the chin and the toddler squeals in delight before turning back towards her mother for reassurance. The daughter of Maleficent can't help but feel happy, seeing the curiosity and happiness in the little one's eyes. While she's never been around babies before, she's taken a liking to them. What she doesn't know is that Ben is watching her and can't stop himself from smiling too, admiring his girlfriend's interaction with children.

"She takes after her father when it comes to the charm," Ashley jokes.

Chad stands there, not used to being completely ignored. If these total strangers really were his parents, why were they admiring Mal more than him? He seems pretty fearful of this baby whose height barely reaches past his knees. He feels a mix of various emotions and for the first time, is at a loss on what to say. These "parents" seem nice but pay more attention to the baby than their own son.

The prince takes a step closer, wary of what might happen if he gets too close.

Eventually, Mal spots Chad staring almost enviously at the group and decides to include him. She walks over and gives Alexandra to him. He immediately struggles to hold the child, especially since she likes to kick and squirm around.

The daughter of Maleficent takes great satisfaction with his discomfort. She leans forward and talks to the bratty prince in a low voice. "These guys have a pretty happy life going on, so my word of advice, don't ruin it for them by being you."

She then turns and walks away, leaving Chad to struggle with his toddler sister who begins to cry because of being held incorrectly and that she wanted Mal to stay.

"Good luck," the purple-haired teen smiles. She high fives Crystal and Evie as she walks by.

...

Meanwhile, Snow is helping all the seven sons become acquainted with their seven fathers. She can sort of tell fairly quickly which son is which based on their appearances. They truly are seven chips off the seven blocks.

When Gordon and Leroy are paired together, they stare at one another, seeming to be having a staring contest, seeing who can make the grumpiest face.

"This is my son?" Leroy grunts in disapproval. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Don't be rude Leroy," Snow snaps angrily. "He's your son."

"It's a miracle that anyone actually was willing to marry you," Regina snickers.

"HEY!" the dwarf snaps angrily. First the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin, and now the Evil Queen, he's surrounded by sarcastic witches. "Watch your mouth your royal highness or my pickaxe is going in a place where the sun doesn't shine."

Regina conjures up a fireball in her hand, challenging the angry dwarf to say any more. Despite how much the group had come from the days of being enemies and holding the grudge for poisoning Snow, the former Evil Queen still felt the need to torment the dwarves on occasion, especially Leroy since he was the easiest to get a rise out of. She knew that they wouldn't stand a chance against her, which is why it made it so fun.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Snow says firmly, standing in between her former enemy and her former housemate. She hates being the mediator when Regina just has to rub Grumpy the wrong way. "We don't need any more problems!"

"Says you," Gordon says, crossing his arms and hardly skipping a beat from his father's derisive comment. "This is what I have to look forward to when I get older, a gray beard, a slouched back and a beer gut?"

"Well, the apple doesn't fell far from the tree, Gordon and in your case, it got run over by a lawnmower," Double D teases.

"Shut your mouth D! Ever tried to whistle 'Hi Ho' with a mouth full of broken teeth?!" He holds his fists up angrily, ready to battle his cousin.

The comeback seems to impress the father figure because Leroy is smirking slightly at the comment, finding it very amusing and something he wished that he had thought of before. The kid clearly had his guts and didn't give a damn about anyone but himself.

He reaches over and ruffles the kid's hair before slugging him in the shoulder. "Probably didn't fall that far from the tree," he chuckles to himself.

Evie keeps her head on her boyfriend's arm as Snow introduces Doug to his "alternate" father Dopey.

"Hello... Dad," Doug says, slightly nervous.

Dopey looks at him and cocks his head to the side slightly. He gives a sort of awkward smile and waves at the boy happily. It's a little unexpected that Doug seems to tense up slightly in Evie's grasp, worried as to why his father did not really react the way he expected. Even if he seems nice enough.

Fortunately, Snow comes to his rescue and puts his worries at ease.

"Sorry Doug, we forgot to mention that Dopey is mute, he can't speak."

"Just like mine," he says, slightly more relieved that it wasn't something he said.

Crystal comes up and offers a notepad and pencil to the mute dwarf. Doug waits patiently as the dwarf in the purple hat writes his response. Once he's done, Dopey holds it up.

 _Hello Doug,_

 _It's so nice to meet you. You are a lucky man to have such a beautiful girl on your arm,_

Then there was a smiley face beneath it. Evie can't help but blush at the compliment and give Doug a kiss on the cheek.

"It's nice to meet you too Dopey, I hope you don't mind if we keep it formal for now."

Dopey scribbles down his next response.

 _Not at all_ , it says. _Although I do think I should talk to Miss Evie about treating my son correctly._

Evie giggles at the joke and Doug flushes a shade of red. He's only known the man for a few minutes, and he's already embarrassing him as a father would.

At another section of the park, Audrey stands in front of Phillip, Aurora, and their son.

She gives a slight curtsey to them.

"Hello, I am Princess Audrey, daughter of Prince Phillip and Princess Aurora, and I understand that you are my 'alternate' parents?"

"That would appear to be the case," Phillip says. He is impressed with the girl's impeccable manners and does carry herself as a traditional princess would. However, since coming to Storybrooke, both he and Aurora had taken to the more modern ways and did not greet every person with a kiss on the hand or a curtsey. "I'm Phillip, and this is my wife Aurora, and our son, Phillip Junior. Welcome to Storybrooke, I hope you are liking it so far."

Just then, the baby in Aurora's arms gurgles, having just woken up from a nap. The attention turns to the baby.

"He's adorable," Audrey coos, taking a few steps closer to admire the small child.

Baby Phillip looks up at his new sister with great interest from his mother's arms. He looks a lot like his father, but with his mother's blue eyes.

Phillip digs into the diaper bag and offers Audrey a toy for her to give to him. She shakes the rattle in front of the child, much to his delight and he reaches for it eagerly, cooing contently.

"He looks just like you," the teenager says.

"He takes after his father, but as for sleeping he takes after me," Aurora jokes, causing Audrey to smile as well.

Everyone else who have parents in Storybrooke become acquainted; Marco gives Pin a hug before August can even say hello to his son; Jordan and Sydney exchange a handshake under Regina's supervision; Simon and Whitney shake hands with Snow and David, while also getting to meet their baby brother Neal; and Jane and Tallia meet the covenant of fairies, all who are eager to have a new trainees in their midst, with Blue promising to send word to Tinkerbell/Green of this surprising news as soon as possible.

Crystal cradles a sleeping Gideon as she sits next to her step-mother at the picnic table. Several of the pirates keep to themselves, staring wearily at Snow White, whom they now regarded as a fearsome leader. Killian and Emma attempt to make small-talk with CJ and Harry, while Carlos and Jay fill Freddie in on what has been happening since they'd been hiding in the lamp. It was an unusual sight to behold, especially to a girl who evidently didn't have the same respectable father that Ben did in Auradon.

"Has anyone seen Rumpel at all?" Belle asks since she realizes that one parent is missing from their Storybrooke family.

"When was the last time you actually wanted to know where he was?" Crystals retorts. "Because the answer is never good."

"Crystal, you know he's changed," Belle protests.

"Of course, I do, but if I've learned one thing from living with Dad, it's to let him do his thing. He's a cat, unpredictable, a bit of an ass, and completely independent."

...

Meanwhile, Rumple stands at the docks in Storybrooke harbour, with a conch shell in his hands. He stares out at the horizon for a long moment before giving two sharp blows into the shell, it creates a slight ripple across the surface as the deep melodic sound exits out into the sea air.

He waits patiently as the sun begins to set over the horizon of the Maine sky. He embraces the quiet with water lapping against the nearby beach and gently rocking the boats moored into the marina.

Eventually, the water near the dock begins to churn rapidly and bubbles begin to break the surface as someone or something begins to rise from the depths of the ocean.

A smile spreads across the Dark One's mouth as a new face appears from below the surface.

"Time for some parental discipline," he mutters.

 _A/N: Ten dollars to who this might be._


	59. Chapter 58: Ursula's Urchin

Chapter 58: Ursula's Urchin

"Rumpelstiltskin, never thought I'd ever hear from you again," Ursula says, as her tentacles slowly churn the surface of the harbour, allowing her to almost "tread water" and speak to the demon she once worked with before Emma and Hook had helped her gain her happy ending by allowing her to reconnect with her father. "Still causing trouble for Storybrooke?"

"Lady Ursula, looking as gorgeous as an angler fish. Time under the sea has done wonders to your complexion."

"Cut the wisecracks Rumpel!" the cecaelia snaps, one of her tentacles whips some water at him in anger for the distasteful joke.

"Tongue still as sharp as sea urchin barb," the Dark One smirks.

Again, Ursula's tentacle forces itself forward in anger, the slimy suction cupped appendage comes within inches of his face, ready to strangle him in retaliation for the insults. But of course, the imp barely flinches at the intended threat. He had faced much worse in his time being alive so a half-human/half-octopus hybrid hardly scared him.

"Much has happened since you have left, in fact, I would like you to meet my daughter and my new son."

"Your new son?" the former mermaid says in surprise, her eyebrows raising with much skepticism. "Who was stupid enough to let you knock them up?" She feels great pride in sending a few insults back at the villainous man.

Rumpel bites his lip extremely hard, wanting to make the sea witch pay for her derisive comment towards his wife. "My wife…" he hisses angrily.

"Your wife, you two are still together? Wow, I owe Cruella twenty bucks that you would be divorced by the end of the year."

"That might be a bit hard considering Miss DeVil has been deceased for quite some time."

"What? Cruella is dead?"

"Yes."

"Who killed her?"

"Believe it or not, it was the Saviour."

"Really? Did it darken her heart?"

"Not quite, you see Miss DeVil foolishly decided to kidnap my grandson in order to challenge Miss Swan's ethics and question her values as a hero. However, in the end, the Saviour pushed her over a cliff with her magic since she was threatening to do the same to Henry. She did it to protect him, so it was technically done out of desperation rather than evil."

Ursula fixes her hair while she pondered this news. While she never technically liked Cruella, she knew she wouldn't miss the selfish and vain woman, but they had worked with each other in the past; "teaming up" with Rumpelstiltskin against Chernabog, working together to kidnap Belle when the imp had betrayed them, working with Charmings to prevent the curse, catching the so-called heroes while they were sending Maleficent's baby to another world, using Lily's egg together to stay young, and spending quite a long time in the mortal world, something that was completely foreign to them. She technically didn't deserve to die in such a way, but perhaps she deserved it in the end. It surprised her further that Rumple had not done anything to stop the puppy hater considering he often claimed that he loved his grandson as he was the only link back to his son, Baelfire. She truly had missed quite a lot since going home again.

"Hmmm, never mess with a mother bear and her cub," is all the sea witch can really say to justify to what happened to her former ally.

"Interesting that you should mention that…" Rumpel says. His face shifts to nervous anxiety as he considers telling this aquatic creature this unusual news.

"What?" she demands, catching the look on his face. Her suspicions begin to arise, and she prepares to go back into the water, return to her home world. "What did you do this time? I'm done helping you Dark One so you may as well forget it! Every time you do something it always comes back to bite everyone in the ass!"

"I haven't done anything. Actually, this is my daughter's fault for the development of recent events."

"So, she's as bad as you then?" Ursula inquires. "And when did you have the time to knock up Belle twice. It's only been like three years since we last met, so how could a three-year-old cause so much trouble?"

"This is my daughter from a previous relationship back in our original realm. One that few people are aware of that due to my illicit affair with a miller's daughter, I produced a daughter with the magic of her own, which lines up more with those blasted fairy tales from this land. The mother escaped with our child in her womb into the real world. She's 21 now and actually takes much more after her mother than me."

"So why are you being forced to clean up her mess?" Ursula inquires.

Rumpel bites his lip extremely hard, deciding it was better to show her rather than continue to tell her. "It's a bit of a complicated situation than just that, perhaps you would prefer to walk with me and get a burger from _Granny's_ as I explain and then show why I called you here."

The sea witch hesitates, rolling her eyes upwards, not entirely understanding what the imp was saying. This mostly sounded like a waste of her time and she should really just leave. However, she has travelled all this way to answer the conch shell, she hadn't walked on land in quite some time, and some form of sustenance other than seafood sounded like a novel change.

"All right, but this better not be another sick joke," she warns. "Or I will fulfill that promise of making you pay Rumpelstiltskin. I still haven't forgotten the last time you betrayed me."

"Lady Ursula, I assure you I am a changed man and have been for a long time. There will be no surprises from me."

"As if I've never heard that one before," the cecaelia says, rolling her eyes.

The shell around her neck begins to glow as her tentacles reach up, grabbing the edges of the docks and pulling her up out of the water. As soon as she's on the wooden docks, her shell glows brighter and her tentacles shrink and then vanish completely until the sea witch is standing on two feet once again. She takes a few cautious steps, grabbing one of the side rails to support herself.

"It's strange," she says, mostly to herself. "I'd never thought that I would miss walking on two appendages again."

Rumpel merely nods and offers his cane to her as a method of assistance. But of course, the cecaelia ignores the Dark One's suggestion and continues to walk, a bit unsteadily, until she gets the hang of walking again and has no further trouble.

The Dark One accompanies her as they begin walking towards _Granny's_ in rather awkward silence.

…

"Never would have thought of you as a lady's man," Ursula says as Rumpel comes back outside of the restaurant with food in his arms. He had explained what had transpired in Storybrooke since the former mermaid had left with her father Poseidon. The sea witch had decided to wait outside the eatery while the Dark One went in to buy her food. This was considering that most people would likely not be happy to see this Queen of Darkness again, not after the havoc she, Cruella, and Maleficent had created while they were here. She'd rather not cause a scene of any kind, especially with the Charmings. "Having three children with three different women… that has to be a record for any Dark One. Usually, none of them are very attractive, to begin with."

"Thank you for the boost of confidence Lady Ursula," he says, biting his lip and handing the witch a warm bag containing cheeseburger and fries, as well as a soda.

The half human/half octopus goes immediately into the bag and digs ravenously into the burger.

"Man do I miss greasy human food," she says through bites of her burger and taking a long sip of soda. "You can't fry anything underwater and the only things available are raw fish, clams, scallops and all that gross stuff. Sometimes I just need Ramen or something that just isn't good for you, you know what I mean?"

The two former villains begin walking along the street to wherever Rumpel wanted them to go; he appeared to have bought more trust with the cecaelia by buying her lunch. He merely nods in response and continues walking, gazing forward, knowing that what he's about to do is going to be shocking to several people.

It is then that Ursula notices the second bag of warm food in the imp's hand.

"Bringing food home to the family?" she asks.

"N-No…" he says, continuing to stare forwards. "It's for someone I'd like you to meet."

They continue to walk until they come to the sheriff's station.

"Why are we here Rumpel?" she demands, fearing the worst. "You better not be trying to arrest me."

"Just come, everything else will make sense in a few moments," the Dark One says. He opens the door and walks in, with a reluctant Ursula following him.

As they go into the holding cells of the station, a very irritated teenager is pacing her cell, her turquoise braids swinging back and forth with her hasty movements. Rumpel sees a mess of shattered glass and a pool of water beside one of the deputy desks. Clearly, this girl had had some kind of temper tantrum and thrown the glass of water, which his daughter had put in the cell as a sign of kindness had been, against anything she could.

As soon as she sees movement out of the corner of her eyes, the girl stops pacing and grasps the bars in fury. "Finally, will someone let me out of here!" the braided and extremely moody teenager screams. She looks like she could bend the bars of the cell with ease due to her anger. "Why am I in here big nose?!" she barks.

Rumpel frowns at the insult but chooses to ignore it.

"Such harsh words from the man who is holding nourishment for you. Might I suggest you bring the temper down in order to receive it."

Uma just snarls and stares daggers at the man whom she knew was dangerous. She's peeved beyond words that she couldn't remember what happened back at the shop. One minute she's standing there, the next she's waking up in a jail cell with her seashell and sword gone, and no other way of escaping. She had tried picking the lock but there seemed to be an enchantment on it, preventing her from doing just this. After many frustrating attempts to escape and being unable to do so, she lost her temper and destroyed everything in her cell, including tossing the glass of water across the room and shatter it completely. She didn't care who she hurt. She wanted answers… and food and she wanted them now!

"No one tells me what to do!" she snaps back at him.

"Is that so?" the Dark One says, raising his eyebrow. "Not even your mother?"

"My mother is dead to me!" Uma says in pure rage. "She's an ugly bucket of barnacles that deserves to be doused in gasoline and set on fire."

"Interesting analogy…" he pauses, giving a slight smirk before turning towards his companion. "Dear **Ursula** , what do you think of that?"

Uma's dark eyes go wide in pure shock, her knuckles on the bars of the cell go pale from how tightly she'd grasping them. A lump appears in her throat and the pirate captain becomes completely paralyzed in shock.

The Dark One then conjures up the shell that had been hanging around Uma's neck when she'd come to Storybrooke and holds it up for the sea witch to see.

"Look familiar? Perhaps further explanation will be required to understand what my daughter brought to Storybrooke."

 _A/N: Sorry to everyone for taking such a long time to update. Practice teaching is not an easy thing. Hope you enjoy it and please give me lots of feedback._


	60. Chapter 59: Poor Unfortunate Souls

Chapter 59: Poor Unfortunate Souls

While Rumpelstiltskin never spoke the words, it was clear from the looks of realization on the women's faces that they knew what this meant. Neither could breathe in the horror of this newfound awareness.

Ursula leans against the deputy's chair in absolute horror and disbelief. Her human legs have become weak to the point where she can barely stand up any longer, but the other contributing factor could be that she hadn't used them in such a long time. She tries to even her breathing out as she feels herself going into a panic-like state, cutting off air into her lungs. Her eyes go from the shell in the Dark One's hand to the young girl in the holding cell, completely at a loss of what to say. She can definitely see the resemblance between them; her eyes were the dead give away, and if she took the braids away and inserted thick black or blonde ringlets, the two would be mirror images of one another. It causes the cecaelia's heart to skip a few beats in horror. Her mind wants to deny it, but the truth was staring at her from the holding cell. Her hand shakily finds her own shell, squeezing it so tightly that it could very well crumble in her grasp.

Uma's brown eyes stare at the woman for a long period of time. She sees the exact same necklace around this stranger's neck… after all, it was her mother's… Her reaction is no better as she too gazes at the woman in confusion, fear, and a whole lot of anger. While this woman could pass in appearance as her mother, she was much prettier and also lacked the tentacles that her mother would whip at the slightest sign of disobedience from her "employee." That's all Uma ever was to her mother anyways, an employee, someone to work the night shift and buss the tables at the fish and chips place. When the flashbacks of her mother's barking voice and unruly tentacles coming towards her face enter her mind, the pirate captain's hands grasp the bars so tightly, all the colour disappears from her knuckles. She grinds her teeth in pure rage as the boiling sensation courses through her veins, filling her entire being to the point where she's a time bomb, just waiting to explode. It seemed that only her disbelief and confusion kept this rage from exploding and it was fortunate that the Dark One was holding the shell, the source of her magic because if the reckless teenager had it, the Storybrooke Sheriff's station would likely be nothing but ruins by now.

The two women stare at each other. Mother and daughter spooked beyond all measure from this sudden revelation. The minutes stretch on, only the breathing of the stunned females and the internal chuckling of Rumpelstiltskin, revelling in the chaos that he had created with a few simple words and a seashell. While he has sworn off doing malicious and villainous acts for the sake of his family, especially for the sanity of his wife and daughter; he couldn't help but live up to the impish nature of his name and cause some form of madness and mischief. The silence was music to his ears and he delighted in the bewildered faces of his "victims."

However, this smirk does not last very long. Eventually, Ursula recovers enough to finally react. She allows her necklace to glow and her tentacles reappear in a flash of bright light. She then lashes out at the evil man and wraps one of her appendages around his throat. If Uma was still unconvinced at the possibility that this woman was her mother, that went out the window the moment the slimy limbs appeared. The teenager releases the bars of the cell and takes a step back in complete shock, unconsciously reacting the way she usually does when tentacles come towards her.

"What… what kind of trick are you pulling Dark One?!" the cecaelia demands angrily.

While the imp is shocked by this sudden attack, he should not be surprised that the former Queen of Darkness would retaliate so violently. The queens were not known for their calm and just demeanours. As the green tentacle slowly cuts off his airway, he can't help but manage a smug smile, still enjoying the confusion. He knew an immortal could not be killed, but he decides to let her believe this for a few moments.

"You're wearing thin on my patience you demonic sea monkey!" she snarls, the tentacle becoming tighter.

"Perhaps you should remove your limb and allow my lungs air to let me explain," he sputters in good humour.

Despite the lack of air, Rumpel remains completely calm, he lifts his hand up to the green limb and gently uses his dark magic to force the appendage to uncoil, which causes discomfort and slight pain to the sea witch. She grimaces, while still keeping eye contact with the Dark One.

"Lady Ursula, I assure you, this is no trick. No illusion or mirage or dark spell. This girl, Uma is as real as you and I are… and the resemblance is undeniable is it not? She certainly has your eyes"

"T-This is not possible. I-I don't have children! I've never had children… I don't want children!"

The last words stung Uma slightly from within her cell. She bites her lip in pain. It appears that both versions of her mother wanted the same thing… to be childless. A common factor for a lot of Isle parents apparently.

"Positive support," he mutters sarcastically before walking over and depositing the bag of food from _Granny's_ on the floor in the cell.

"I assumed that you would prefer a hamburger considering Granny does not serve seafood."

"Is that a joke?" Uma snaps. She remains standing in the middle of the cell, wary about what the Dark One was presenting to her; the man who had threatened her with a fireball and told her his origins less than 24 hours ago.

"Your temper is a fascinating thing. You must get it from your mother…" he chuckles to her. "My daughter's sarcasm has rubbed off on me more than I had anticipated…I also put onion rings in there as well, a lovely change from the Isle food I've heard about from your companions."

"Isle?" Ursula asks curiously.

"Where the alternate version of you is imprisoned, and where this child is from."

"What the hell are you talking about?" the sea witch demands, her mind a whirlwind of questions. None of this is possible. She never had a relationship with anyone in The Land Without Magic, which now seems sad when she thinks about it, she's never been to an island, and she sure as hell has not carried any children.

"It would appear that some time should be taken to explain everything, but I recommend eat those things while they are hot young Uma. Let your mother and I have a bit of discussion."

"She is **_NOT_** my mother," the daughter of Ursula hisses.

She picks up the paper bag of food and opens it. She sniffs at the burger suspiciously, eyeing the Dark One as she does so. It doesn't smell poisoned, but for all she knows, Mal tainted it with something too. However, the longer she hesitates, the hungrier she becomes. Her stomach growls aggressively, craving the delicious meal presented to her, considering she never got the chance to eat from her stolen stash yesterday. The goody goodies have probably already returned everything by now. The amount of love righteousness in this town made her sick, but not sick enough to eat. She takes an experimental bite and chews. It tasted rather good, so much so that she takes another bite without thinking about any further hesitation as her hunger takes over. She sits on the cot in her cell and eats while staring at the two adults.

As she eats, Rumpel sits down in a nearby chair that is a few inches from the holding cell. He knows the next little while is going to be confusing for all of them. After responding to a few text messages from his wife and daughter, asking him where he is and if he's coming to the park to help sort the alternate children to their prospective parents, he waits for the sea goddess to return to a humanoid form, which takes a bit of prompting on his part.

"There is no way you are going to be able to run from this now. You know the truth, you can't deny it, the best you can do is understand it. Besides, no one comes to Storybrooke without experiencing a few crises and leaving with some take-out from _Granny's_."

 _A/N: Ain't that the truth. Special thanks to all my readers and followers_


	61. Chapter 60: Moving In

Chapter 60: Moving In

"Will everyone please listen up!" Regina calls out to the crowd of people.

Many eyes turn towards the mayor of Storybrooke, she stands on a picnic bench to make sure that everyone can see her.

"Now, I know that this is a lot to take in for many of you and we are asking for a rather large favour of you, but there just isn't enough room at _Granny's_ to house all these children from Auradon and the Isle and I seriously doubt Whale is going to let these teens stay in his hospital any longer. I know the convent can help with some of this problem, but if a few of you could graciously take in some of the alternate children, no one will have to sleep on a park bench."

 _Hell no_! Lily growls in her head. She doesn't want some purple-haired freak living with her and her mother. She glares daggers at the so-called heroes of this town.

Everyone frowns with concern, they would never put it past the monarch to carry out this threat.

"I'm kidding," the former Evil Queen says.

"I promise that it's only temporary," Crystal reassures the crowd. "First thing tomorrow, Mal and I will start working on a way to get everyone home. I just need to go get my Dad's book from his shop. We will not rest until every child is back with their real parents again."

"Or vice versa," Mal mutters as most of the VKs don't want anything to do with their real parents.

"Like the arrivals from Camelot and the Land of Untold Stories, we are going to do our best to keep everyone safe and make everyone feel welcome," Snow reminds them. She and David look at their new twin children, Snow is already planning to have the twins share the upstairs in the farmhouse, right next to Neal's room. She hopes that they won't mind sharing their usual guest space.

"And we will provide all of them with the basic necessities like food and clothing," Emma adds.

"But you, munchkins will have put up with looking plain for a little while," Zelena jokes.

"If I can get some fabric and a sewing machine, I could make everyone new outfits," Evie says, as Doug wraps her in his arms. "This place definitely needs some updated fashion choices."

"We'll think about it, Evie," Regina reassures her with a smile.

"The covenant can provide several beds for some of the children," Blue volunteers. She looks down at Jane and Tallia. "Would you ladies mind staying with the sisters? I believe spending time with fellow fairies will be most beneficial to everyone."

The daughter of the Fairy Godmother smiles brightly. She is hesitant to live in a strange place and she doesn't want to completely go back to being the "good girl" with the bowl cut; she thinks she could learn a lot from the fairies, making her mother very proud. "We'd love to," she says positively.

"She does not speak for both of us," Tallia points out. She snaps her bubble gum, not wanting to spend time in a place with rules that tells you when to pray, what to do, and what to wear. It's exactly what she'd tried to escape from in Pixie Hollow by going to Auradon. "Can I still chew gum and wear whatever I want?"

Blue's face folds into a frown as she looks at the rebellious teenager wearing green leather and who has green streaks in her hair. She was most definitely Green's daughter, no doubt about that. Rebel without a cause. She decides she can make a few exceptions, especially if it's only temporary. It is clear that the daughter of Tinkerbell will need some strong guidance, especially when it comes to learning about respect and handling her potential magic.

"Within reason, as long as you follow the rules, you are welcome to chew gum and wear what you would like," the head fairy finally says.

"Cool," the teenager shrugs.

"If that is two children, we have about seven more beds to fill,"

"Will you accept Jordan?" Regina speaks up immediately. The last thing she wants is the young genie to be anywhere near Sidney Glass. The man is completely insane and obsessive, the most unfit to be a parent of all; why she ever kept him around as her companion in the magic mirror still baffles her to this day. She also assumes that the fairies can protect Jordan's magic lamp so there are no further mishaps like the CJ incident.

"Certainly," Nova says, speaking out instead of Blue. The head fairy glares at the impulsive Pink, but then sighs, nodding in agreement.

"How about it, Allie?" Tallia asks. "Want to be roomies like at Auradon?"

"If it's okay," the timid blonde asks.

Blue nods, knowing that this shy girl would not cause harm to anyone.

"Ruby and Anxelin might be a good choice too," Ben offers helpfully.

"Finally, we'll have more people to help us braid our hair," Anxelin says.

"Yes," Ruby agrees.

"Freddie?" Mal offers.

The voodoo girl shrugs. "Well, I'm not going back in the lamp."

Blue twitches nervously, not liking the idea of a dark voodoo apprentice being in the holy convent, but perhaps they could also help her control her magic and use it responsibly. The head of the convent just nods in agreement.

"And I guess Melody and Arabella can finish that up," Mal says.

The mermaid sisters shrug, deciding it's better than sleeping in a fish tank. The two cousins go over to stand with the rest of the group.

"We'd rather sleep on a ship," Jonas shouts out. "Not in some hippie hotel or convent."

"Yeah," a bunch of Uma's crew shouts in agreement.

Regina looks at Killian.

"Is _The Jolly Roger_ an option?"

Killian bites his lip extremely hard, hesitating to let these rowdy bunch of teenagers anywhere near his ship. Emma can feel the tension in his body and wraps her arm around him.

"I can put a protection spell on it, she won't get a scratch. And I'll make sure that only you can sail her."

Killian is still dragging his feet, but in the end, it would be better to have the pirates where they are most comfortable and to keep them all into one place.

"If they promise to keep her in ship shape," he finally says. "The barracks will be available." He grinds his teeth and subtly flashes his hook at the group. He gives them a sharp look of disdain and anger, telepathically telling them that if they step out of line, they would regret it. He knows his place is at home with Emma and their little sea jewel, but _The Jolly Roger_ was his second home, had been for more than 200 years. Even back when she was the _Jewel of the Realm_ and he sailed with his brother. She had seen everything from typhoons to Kraken attacks, surely, she could remain floating even if she was the home of some teenagers for a short amount of time.

"That takes care of them, but Harry and CJ, you're welcome to stay at our place," Emma offers, not really sure why she's being so accommodating to their "alternate" children. They felt very little paternal or maternal instincts towards the rebellious offspring of Captain Hook, but the Saviour could sense that the two were just scared and needed a helping hand right now. She could see the lost look that she had had at that age, fear of being alone and not caring because the world didn't seem to give them a break.

"Ye mean it Lass?" Harry asks, his eyes wide in surprise and hope.

"Do you Swan?" Killian asks.

Emma gazes into her husband's bright blue eyes; he's clearly at the end of his rope. He'd already given up his ship to these outsiders, but not his home… their home. She takes him to the side to talk privately.

"Killian, it won't be for very long."

"But Swan…"

"I know they are a lot to handle, but wasn't Henry, especially during the late teen years? It won't be for very long. Look at them, Killian… do you not see that they are as lost as we were? Children who cry at night because they miss their parents."

"They don't bloody miss their parents,"

"Maybe they would if they had proper ones," Emma says quietly, biting her lip.

Killian sighs, he looks over at Harry and CJ, the elder brother has his arm wrapped around his sister almost protectively. It was rare to see any affection from the son of Captain Hook… _**his**_ son. He looks closely, and he can see the same expression all lost children from Neverland have. His heart becomes heavy as he sees Baelfire, himself, Liam, and Emma in their place.

He sighs. "All right, as long as they help with the dishes."

Emma smiles at his joke. "That could take a while."

"Tia, Aziz, Herkie, Lonnie, Li Jr. are welcome to stay at _Granny's_. Any other takers?" Regina asks. Staying at the restaurant was especially appealing to Tia, who had inherited her mother's interest and talent for cooking, she'd like to see how the restaurant is run. "Evie, you Dizzy, Robbie, Carlos and Jay are welcome in my home. I have plenty of room for everyone."

There is a small lump in Regina's throat when she mentions Robbie, the alternate son of Robin Hood. While Roland had gone back to the Enchanted Forest with the Merry Men, which was for the best, she still missed him and still wanted to have a piece of her soul mate present. Sure she had little Robin, but Zelena did most of the raising.

"Ben; you, Paige and Patrick are coming home with us. If you guys don't mind Gideon's 4 o'clock feeding," Belle offers.

The Pan twins shrug, not knowing the full connection to Belle, Crystal, and Gideon yet.

"As long as it's far away from the crying," Patrick says.

Maleficent goes up to Mal and puts her hand on her shoulder.

"Dear Mal…"

 _Oh no!_ Lily thinks in her mind. _Why Mom? Why?_

"Would you be okay coming home with Lily and me? Our place has plenty of room for a third person, you can have your own space, and you will get a nice place to sleep with a view of the forest."

Lily's eyes flash gold. She tries to hold back an animalistic snarl she has in the back of her throat. She doesn't want some freaky, younger outsider ruining what she had built with her mom. It already infuriated her that the mistress of all evil had taken a liking to the teenager already. It drove her mad, that darkness inside of her coming back into her veins. She walks away in a huff before she burned every one of them to a crisp.

The purple-haired teenager hesitates for a moment, not entirely ready to move-in with complete strangers who are supposed to be her "alternate" family. She does feel like just staying at _Granny's_ would be the lesser of two evils, but she'd have to share with one of the Auradon students and honestly, a room to herself did sound appealing

"Just let me check with Lily," the former queen of darkness says. She turns to find her first-born daughter gone. "That's odd, she was there a minute ago..."

"If Lily's okay with it, then yes I'd like to stay with you," Mal agrees.

"Audrey, Chad, Pin, Whitney and Simon, plus all seven sons can stay with their prospective parents too." Regina finishes pleased to have each child be given a roof over their heads.

"Oh, giorno felice!" Marco says. "Another pair of hands in the shop!"

"Who says we want seven extra mouths to feed," Leroy grunts.

"Leroy please," Snow says sternly. "Just be accommodating, like you were for me. You all took me in when I had nowhere else to go."

"All right, all right," the dwarf grumbles. "Enough with the guilt-tripping."

Audrey could not be more excited and nervous to get to know her new parents and baby brother. Chad looks like he's seen a ghost as the idea of living with a toddler with no place to get his hair done made him want to keel over.

"What about Uma?" Harry asks.

"Yeah, you can't keep her in the brig forever!" Gil shouts.

"Why would that need to happen?" a voice calls out.

Everyone is on their guard, especially Mal and her friends when they see Uma walking towards them. However, she is not alone.

Rumpelstiltskin walks beside the pirate captain and a woman who was unknown to those from Auradon, but the people from Storybrooke flinch a bit in fear at the queen of darkness. She ignores the various stares and goes to greet Maleficent with a fond hug.

"Darling," the sea witch says. "It's fabulous to see you."

"It's been too long," the horned woman agrees.

"Lady Ursula," Hook says, nodding in respect. While he was still a little nervous around the woman who had tried to drown him, he had helped her get her happy ending again. The sea witch nods to her former enemy but keeps her eyes forward at the crowd of many people.

"Rumpel?" Belle asks. "What did you do?"

"Ursula?!" Harry says.

"Ursula!" Gil swallows.

Most of the pirate crew take a large step back, knowing how bossy and treacherous this eight-legged octopus lady could be, especially when the teens hung around the fish and chips shop.

"The one and only," the cecaelia says proudly, almost with a bow. She turns to Uma. "This must be the Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum of your crew you spoke about."

Both mother and daughter smirk and chuckle at the comment. Harry can't help but grin as "Tweedle-Dum" has no idea what was just said, he just stands around looking lost as usual.

"Rumpelstiltskin you have some explaining to do," Belle demands. The beauty herself is a little afraid considering Ursula had tried to strangle her once.

The man goes over to his wife and kisses her head. "I merely reunited a family," he says. "And I have prepared accommodations for the sea witch and her hatchling while they are in town."

"And I've already sent the word out to Ariel about her guppies," Ursula says. Both she and Uma stand slightly closer together, almost affectionately.

Mal and everyone else is still on guard, but it's strange to see Uma so calm and not trying to wrap her hands around Mal's throat. She doesn't seem to acknowledge the AKs around her. Something must have happened since she was in that jail cell.

Little did anyone notice, that Carlos had snuck away from the rest of the group, heading back towards Mr. Gold's shop to see his parent again.

 _A/N: Hey guys, sorry that it's been so long since I've updated, but here's a new chapter for everyone. Hope you enjoy it. It's official: the AKs and VKs are officially moving into Storybrooke!_


	62. Chapter 61: De Vil in Disguise

Chapter 61: De Vil in Disguise

The son of Cruella De Vil hurries back through town, trying to remember exactly where Rumpelstiltskin's weird shop was. For some odd reason, despite how cruelly his real mother treated him, he wants to speak to his own guardian again. One reason could be that he was jealous that all the other kids had met their prospective parents or families, leaving him a little bit left out. At first, she acted the same way his own mother would, but her demeanour changed… almost too quickly. Did she have multiple personalities? Bad mood swings? Was she just playing him? All these questions swirled around in his head as he tried to navigate the strange streets of Storybrooke. A few townspeople, who were not at the park with everyone else eye, him almost suspiciously like he's some punk who is up to no good. This really shouldn't surprise him because, for the longest time, he, Jay, Mal, and Evie really were up to no good all the time, causing trouble for everyone they could on the Isle. However, despite the initial weary glances, most of them don't pay any more attention to him and go about their daily lives. Carlos can't imagine why people would want to live such a boring existence with nothing exciting ever happening; no electronics stores, no arcades, not even a movie theatre. When Regina said that she had cast the curse, he assumes that it sucked out anything fun for people to do, which could quite possibly be the point of the curse.

Finally, he sees the sign overhead again, not knowing that he was one of many people who crossed under the sign reading:

 ** _Gold & Family Pawnbrokers & Antiquities_**

He tries the door, only to discover that it's locked. Frustrated, realizing that two times will not be the charm, he begins thinking of ways to get in. He obviously can't kick the door down without his presence being discovered, and there are no open windows. He knows he's going to have to pick the lock, which will be hard without a thin piece of metal. He begins looking up and down the street, looking for some kind of discarded trash that could be useful. He goes around the corner of the shop and continues looking. Eventually, he comes to a back alleyway between two buildings, which has a few metal garbage cans laying around. Even the garbage cans seemed outdated in this town.

Despite the age of the things, Carlos realizes that the handle on the garbage can would be perfect. His mind begins to work as he looks at the math and physics of this problem. Once he applied himself in the classes at Auradon, he turned out to be gifted math and physics student, likely from his technical know-how. He begins to twist and work at the thin piece of metal attached to the can, which did not give off a pleasant smell. He twists at various angles, seeing how it would come loose with the least amount of resistance. He eventually knocks the can over to let the weight finally having the thin piece of metal come loose. Smiling to himself in victory, he hurries back out of the alley and to the shop. He sharpens one end of the handle to a point on the concrete to help him pick the lock.

While it had been a while since he'd done this, the VK realized that it was almost like riding a bike, remembering to twist in the opposite direction of the door handle. Eventually, the door swings open with an almost ominous creak.

Relieved, the son of Cruella puts his new lockpick in his pocket and then hurries back over to the mirror. He removes the sheet again to be faced with the blurry and foggy glass. Knowing the pain is worth it, he pricks his finger on one of the thorns. Like before the smooth glass of the mirror warps and changes. The thing shakes and the frame becomes an almost golden-copper colour.

The image clears up to see the familiar red colouring that he'd seen before, except he doesn't see his mother. He is not immediately worried; if this Cruella was like the one on the Isle, she wouldn't stay away from her reflection for very long. However, he doesn't know how long he'll have to talk to her before Mr. Gold comes back or that his friends start wondering where he is. Knowing it's risky, he begins calling her name.

"Mom?" he says loudly to the mirror. It almost feels kind of stupid. "Mom, are you there?"

Remembering how she reacted to that name the last time he decides something different.

"Miss De Vil? Miss De Vil are you there? It's me, Carlos."

He continues this for a few minutes until eventually, a familiar face appears on the other side of the glass and it wasn't his reflection.

Cruella's dark red lips are scrunched into a frown, that is until she sees Carlos again and those lips pull out into a wicked looking smile. Shivers go up the teenager's spine, the resemblance to his real mother is quite scary. She still wears a long silver earring and heavy silver looking necklace but instead of her heavy fur coat, she's only wearing her black, low-cut top. It appears as though she is relaxing and had removed the coat to cool down a bit.

"Yes, yes I'm here, I wish you could have waited until I had finished my 'fake' martini before you called me. I'm glad you didn't catch me at _Granny's_ that would have been most dreadful to explain to everyone."

"Wait, there's a _Granny's_ where you are?"

"Why of course there is darling, where else would I get my fake alcohol?"

"Fake alcohol?"

"Down in the Underworld, there is no such thing, so we drink imitations, hardly passable as the real thing. It's simply dreadful."

"So you are in the Underworld? Does that mean you are…"?

"Dead, yes darling I'm dead."

A heavy lump forms in his throat and the VK can't help but tear up a bit. Most kids from Auradon and even some from the Isle get to meet their parents, but his is dead.

"I'm… I'm sorry."

"Why should you be sorry child, it's not your fault. It was the most terrible thing and I'm still not over it. As you can tell, I clearly didn't deserve it."

 _That remains to be seen_ , Carlos thinks, still unsure about if this woman who is his mother is genuine or not. Very self-centred like his own parent.

Something clicks in Cruella's mind. "You said _Granny's_ as if you already knew the name. Tell me, Carlos, are you in Storybrooke?"

"I am, have you been here before?"

"I have, tell me why didn't you come a meet me before when I was still alive?" She forces herself to show care to the boy, hoping that this new connection could help her in the future. "I would have loved to meet…" She swallows hard at the words. "My son."

"I'm not from this town or even this world. I'm from a place called Auradon."

"Auradon? Never heard of it."

"As far as Crystal and Mal have told us, it's a different version of our world. It's a great place, except for the Isle, which is where my real mom is from."

"Your real mother?" the fashionista says in confusion, trying to comprehend this new information.

"Yes, sorry if I called you that. Technically you are my mother, just my alternate mother."

"Well that's a relief," Cruella says, pleased with this news. However, when she sees the boy's face fall, she quickly tries to change the meaning of what she said. "Because I couldn't possibly imagine leaving my son in the world of the living without a mother. Trust me, darling, I've been through that and it's awful." Leaving out the fact that she technically killed her own mother by setting the woman's two Dalmatian dogs on her.

"Why are you dead?" Carlos asks. He's unsure at whether she is going to take offence to it or not, but he would like to know.

Cruella pauses for a moment before she smiles rather wickedly. "I assume that if you're in Storybrooke you've met the eponymous Saviour with her pirate puppy dog and all the other people there."

"You mean Emma and her family? Yes, I have, did you know them?"

The wicked woman chuckles again at this realization. "I suppose the beloved Saviour didn't tell you, did she? Typical that her family would also cover for her."

"Tell me what?"

"That the heroic Saviour is the reason that I'm in the Underworld."

"Emma killed you?" Carlos gasps in horror. He cannot believe these words. Emma was such a nice person, protective, brave, strong, and a person you could trust. There's no way she could kill someone. Then the conversation at the hospital comes back about Crystal admitting that both she, Killian, and Emma have killed people before. Suddenly, it all made sense as to why she always looked at him funny, because she was wracked with guilts. His hands close into fists as he fights back tears in his eyes.

In the Underworld, Cruella is grinning, her insides are doing somersaults with excitement. She realizes that she's won sympathy with the boy, he obviously needs a mother figure, why else would he contact her again and this could work out perfectly for her. This could be her chance to escape the dreadful existence she had, come back to the land of the living, exact her revenge on the Saviour, unleash chaos on the precious town of Storybrooke, and drink all the alcohol she wanted. She feels euphoric that she wants to start jumping up and down, but of course, she can't do this in front of the mirror. She needs to fool the boy, manipulate him, make him think that she wants to be his mother and that she *ugh* "cares" about him so he'll try and help her. While the boy is skeptical at first, she was beginning to gain his trust and now she had to play the victim card.

"She couldn't have… why would she kill you?" he finally manages to say.

"I assume that she had her reasons, perhaps she was jealous of my looks." She chuckles at her own joke but when she sees the boy so close to tears, she decides to play it more serious. "I'm joking child, it's what I do to cope with this terrible existence, but it was not a merciful death. She had to toy with me first, take away all that was special to me, turn my friends against me, and then threw me to my death over a cliff."

"But why… why?"

"I don't know dear, perhaps you should ask her, although I assume that they've all covered it up by now, still heralding her as a hero, but she isn't. As you should know dear Carlos, as a hero, there is always another way, but of course, Saviour Emma took the darkest possible route. She is most definitely not a hero."

It's still hard for Carlos to wrap his mind around this fact. Everything made sense, but at the same time, it didn't. Emma didn't seem like the type of person who would torment and then outright murder someone, she was going to be a mother after all, but then again Regina had done some terrible things and so did Captain Hook, and they regard them as heroes.

"When… when did this happen?"

"Not long ago, perhaps a few years now and I've been stuck here ever since, which definitely hurts my heart. I am unable to move on due to unfinished business."

"What is your unfinished business?"

 _My revenge_ , the woman thinks, but instead says. "Never having a family."

The look on the boy's face confirms that Cruella now has the boy at her mercy. She just needs to continue twisting the boy's feelings until he'll do anything that she wants.

"But it doesn't have to be this way, Carlos… my son. I know you will find a way to bring back and then maybe we can be a real family…" She decides to shed some crocodile tears to convince him more. She wipes her eyes with her wrist to thoroughly persuade him to feel bad for her and that she truly was suffering more than she actually was.

Carlos swallows a big lump in his throat, he feels sorry for this version of his mother. His insides feel like a whirlwind of emotions. She sounds genuine about wanting a family, and that's all he really wants too. He's still unsure about whether he can trust her, she didn't seem thrilled at the idea of being a mother, in fact, she yelled at him and denied it… but at the same time, she could have been shocked and reacted badly, it wouldn't be the first time his mother had done it. She's so different than the Mom who treated him like a slave, made him into such a wimp and basically ruined his life until he was given the chance to go to Auradon. The kingdom was his second chance at a better life, and maybe this Cruella is a second chance at a better family.

"What can I do Mom?"

 _A/N: Here's a new chapter for everyone. Thank you for all the wonderful support and reviews. Sorry to toot my own horn, but I really like the clever wordplay of the chapter title._


	63. Chapter 62: Home Away From Home

Chapter 62: Home Away From Home

"Has anyone seen Carlos?" Jay asks as the people of Storybrooke begin to disperse to get on with their lives in the tiny town. The new parents of the group are lingering much longer than everyone else, most likely still processing the fact that they are now unofficial guardians of "alternate" children from another realm. While it is a rather big favour to ask of people to open their homes to complete strangers, most are willing to give these kids a safe place to sleep until they could return to their own realm, plus they believed the claim that it was only going to be temporary.

Everyone shakes their heads and they begin scanning the group of kids from Auradon, and sure enough, the son of Cruella is not among them.

"That's really weird," Evie says. "He was here a few minutes ago.

"Where could he have gone?" Jane asks, wondering where her boyfriend could possibly go. After all, he'd said that there was nothing interesting to do in this town, so why would he just leave without telling anyone?

"I'll find him," Dude says, putting his nose to the ground and going to sniff out his master.

"Doggy!" Alexandra exclaims in excitement, although the rest of the people from Storybrooke who had not already met Auradon's talking mascot were rather surprised and even shocked that this dog was speaking and forming cohesive sentences.

"Yes Honey, a doggy," Ella says, while still trying to process this surprising twist on a person's loyal companion.

"His name is Dude," Jay explains to everyone else. "He ate a magic gummy that allows him to talk just so everyone is caught up with everything."

"Pretty fascinating," Archie says, nodding in approval.

"It won't be hard to find him, all I need to do is to find the smell for his unwashed underwear and socks," the dog continues as he sniffs around in random directions trying to pick up the scent.

Mal winces as the spell she'd put on that gummy still came back to bite everyone in the butt. "He also has no filter and will speak the truth no matter what."

"So be careful around him Regina," Killian teases. "Wouldn't want any of your precious secrets to getting out." The former Evil Queen kicks the pirate in the shin as a sign of her annoyance before walking over to the group she was taking home to the mayor's mansion.

"I'd love to put him in a dog house in the backyard, but I assume Carlos will want him to sleep in the bedroom?" She looks over at Evie for confirmation that her statement is correct. The blue-haired teenager nods. "As long as he stays off the furniture and is house-trained, he can stay."

"I've got it!" the mutt shouts in excitement. Thinking quickly, Regina approaches the dog.

"When you do find him, give him this," she conjures up a piece of paper with her address on it. "Then he'll know where to find us." She then tucks the paper in the dog's collar.

"Will do," Dude says, before putting his nose to the pavement and beginning his search.

"Just don't go into the woods," the mayor warns as the dog as he begins vanishing into the streets. "And watch out for cars!"

By then, the dog is far away, and Regina feels her eyes cross as she's just had a conversation with a talking dog, it's messing with her head a little bit.

"Shall we be off?" Killian asks, glaring intensely at the group of War Frats who were going to be staying on his ship. He wraps his arm around Emma's waist and the group, including Harry and CJ head towards the harbour.

"Just a sec," Harry says.

He veers back around goes right up to Crystal and pecks her on the cheek. "Till we meet again love," he says with a wink.

The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin is left rather stunned and tries to hide her blushing as the dashingly cute pirate goes off with his "family."

…

"It just might be a bit of a mess," Aurora apologizes to Audrey. "Having a baby in the house does equal a clean homestead."

As the often-prissy princess walks into the house, she is overwhelmed by the smells and is rather shocked by the rather large mess in the hallway. And it doesn't do justice to the mess in the rest of home. Baby blankets, sleepers, onesies, packs of diapers, toys, books, dirty and clean laundry, are all strewn around in rather strange places. Audrey sniffs around and tries to hide her disappointment that her "alternate" parents were not living in a bigger house. She doesn't even want to know what the smells are, but she steps into the living room while Aurora goes to take Phillip Jr. upstairs for a nap.

"Make yourself at home," Phillip says, as he goes to the kitchen.

Rather awkwardly, Audrey searches for a place that isn't covered in something, and she settles for the edge of the couch, in which she nudges away a few baby clothes just to sit down. She smooths her dress and tries to appear as royalty should, sitting politely and waiting.

When Phillip reappears, he offers her a bottle of water, which she accepts rather reluctantly.

"Big shift with parenthood and this realm," the prince explains. "In the Enchanted Forest, we had servants to take care of the cleaning and such, but here, neither of us can even figure out to turn on the vacuum. Even after all this time, we still need Granny to come and help us figure it out. Plus, with the baby up at all hours, we never anticipated that we'd scarcely had time for anything, let alone ourselves."

"You… had a castle back in your realm?" Audrey asks, secretly wishing that they could go back to said kingdom and perhaps things would be much neater and feel less chaotic.

"We did, but we came over with another curse. It took us a long time to get used to all these modern things, but now that we have them, it's quite enjoyable. Just being able to get water from the tap instead of going to a well, is much easier."

"And having heating controlled by a dial instead of having to build a fire," Aurora adds, coming downstairs with the baby monitor in her hands. She then goes towards the kitchen, which Audrey can't imagine is any better than the living room.

"There's a spare room upstairs that you can sleep in, unfortunately, it is next to little Phillip's room," the prince says, knowing the girl will not be happy in having to sleep next to a crying baby. "What I can do for you is offer some earplugs,"

He smiles rather apologetically, and Audrey forces herself to smile politely, wishing internally that she had just gone to Granny's or stayed in the hospital as the place seems like something out of one of her own nightmares.

…

"My rules are simple," the stern owner of the bed and breakfast says as she gathers the keys for all the rooms. "No smoking in the rooms or in the diner. There is no room service, you want food you come down here. Laundry is down here in the back. Keep your rooms clean…" she eyes her charges sharply, knowing how much of challenge this will be for teenagers. "Boys with boys and girls with girls because I run a respected establishment so that means no visitors after 11."

A few of the kids giggle at the implication but stop immediately when the old woman glares at them under her glasses.

"I don't want any funny business. I also restrict the use of magic, if any of you actually have abilities." She pauses. "Those are my rules if you can't follow them… then tough, you can go back to the hospital and stay with Dr. Whale, and I can assume that he will not want that."

She then opens her registration book and orders the kids to pair up to share the rooms. They will then sign their names and be given the keys.

Once everyone has an established place to stay, the "warden" gives them their keys and are shown where to find their rooms.

"Floyd hurry up with that order!" Widow Lucas barks, turning back to her business. The only person who lingers is Tia, she reaches over and grabs one of the menus off the table. She examines it carefully.

Before Granny can turn to enter the kitchen again, the young girl taps the old woman on the shoulder.

"What kind of pastries do you make and how do you make them?"

While slightly annoyed at first, wanting to get back to running her kitchen, the gentleness and curiosity of Tia's voice caused her to stop her usual reaction of snapping at the girl.

"I have an old recipe book that's been in the family for years," Widow Lucas explains. "I usually do them quickly in the morning because most people just come here for the coffee."

"Have you ever done beignets?"

"No, what are those?"

"Fried pastries with powdered sugar on top. It's something my Mama taught me to make as soon as I could reach the tops of the stove. They're a specialty in New Orleans."

The werewolf cook can see the appeal in the idea of introducing something new to her kitchen: "Interesting, would you like to show me how you make them?"

"If you don't mind…"

The older woman bites her lips and begins to see the dinner crowd beginning to trickle in. She really doesn't want the girl getting in the way during the rush.

"How about you come down to the kitchen after we're closed, just give me the list of ingredients and I'll make sure that they are there for you okay?"

Tia nods eagerly, very pleased that she'll be able to do what she loves most, even if she's far from home.

"Now get on upstairs because it's about to get crazy," the old woman says in an almost joking manner, nudging the girl towards the stairs leading to the rooms.

Tia smiles before going to find a pen and paper to write the ingredients down. A little bit of her mother's cooking will make her stay here feel a bit more like home.

…

"And this is the dormitory where you will be staying for the time being," Blue says, opening the door into a large room lined with beds.

The Auradon group take in the surroundings. It's not particularly interesting, just a long hall lined with mattresses with metal bed frames and a side table with an unimpressive looking bedside lamp on each one and a small drawer for personal belongings. The long red curtains reach upwards over the towering windows which give a view into a lovely looking garden.

"The bathroom is down on the end here and you will be expected to make your beds in the morning and keep your space clean," the lead fairy says. "Is that clear?"

Jane nods before putting her sweater down on the bed before sitting on it. Allie and the others follow suit, knowing that while the place is not particularly interesting, it's a bed and roof over their heads.

"We were hoping that some of you would be willing to assist with some of the chores," Blue says politely. "A sort of exchange of services."

"Whoa, hold on that was not part of the deal," Tallia says, snapping her gum loudly and pointing aggressively at the head fairy.

Jane looks annoyed at Tallia and shoots her a glare for being so rude. "Tallia, it's the least we can do for the Sisters. Don't be so rude…"

"I can act whatever way I want to and when I signed up for convent boot camp, all I wanted was the bed, doing chores was not in the contract."

Blue bites her lip angrily, hating the poor attitude the teenager was giving her. She was very much like Green was, perhaps more stubborn than the pixie from Neverland. It takes all her strength to not take her wand out and punish the girl for being so rude to the people who were offering her hospitality. She was Mother Superior and thus deserved the greatest amount of respect.

"Perhaps you'd prefer to sleep in the bell tower if that's how you would like to approach this."

Tallia looks at the Blue Fairy with sharp eyes, sensing the warning from the pixie princess.

"They ring every hour on the hour," she adds, knowing she's about to win this argument.

"Fine…" the teenaged fairy says, rolling her eyes in defeat. "I'll help out, but don't expect me to spend all day here. I'm not going to stay for prayer time or Bible reading. There are more important things to do than just folding my hands and kneeling in a church."

"That… will be expected of you," Blue finally says, exhaling sharply. She may have won the battle, but she's far from winning the war with this girl. She was in serious need of discipline and likely a mother-figure. The sooner she contacted Tinkerbell to come to their realm, the better off all of them would be. "But you must be back at the convent by lights out. I will not have you disturbing the Sisters by coming in at Lord knows what time."

"Whatever, what's the Wi-Fi password?" Tallia says, laying on the metal framed bed, not even bothering to take her boots off. She snaps her gum and takes out her phone to look through her texts.

Blue scowls at the rebellious teenager. Tinkerbell and Nova seem like the easiest fairies to train compared to this troublemaker. She purses her lips and merely turns to exit the room, leaving the group to what they wanted. She immediately went to get her wand, Green had to be called to allow her to break the news of her having a daughter.

…

"Are you sure they have enough?" Emma asks Harry as he helps the War Frats get _The Jolly Roger_ ready for their extended stay. The expectant mother holds long strips of cloth that were to be used as hammocks for the unruly teenagers. Killian stands on the dock, his hand firmly on his precious ship. Emma had cast the protection spell over it means that nothing, not even a typhoon or the scuff of a boot could damage her.

While he did have many more treasurable and more important things in his life, his wife, his unborn child, his family… _The Jolly Roger_ was still his home away from home. She'd been his shelter for over 200 years while in Neverland. It had survived attacks from mermaids, the most violent storms known to any man, many battles with royal navy ships or other pirate vessels, practice fights with his crew, several mutinies, several ownership trades, being shrunk in a bottle, and sailing through portals. There was very little that his beautiful ship had not seen, and yet she was as pristine as the day he'd turned it from a navy ship to _The Jolly Roger_. She had seen her fair share of death as well, especially with Milah dying in front of him on the deck, and him losing his hand to the crocodile, but there were some happy memories too. More to come he hoped with the birth of him and Swan's child. He recalls teaching Henry how to sail and swordfight on her decks and the times he and Emma would just sit out on the deck in the cool, salty night air and watch the stars, not talking, just holding one another, enjoying the peace and quiet. Those were the memories he hoped to treasure and with their little "sea jewel" coming, he hoped that he or she would take their first steps across the wooden planks, feel the wind in their hair as they go for their first sail out at sea, holding the ship's wheel with the help of their father. He wonders if the Hook from the Wishing Realm ever got to make these memories with his unnamed daughter. While fatherhood seemed scary to him now, if one version of him could do it, then so could he.

"Aye," Harry says as he hands the rest of the cloths to Gil before going below deck to help the son of Gaston with setting everything up, as he would likely need it.

Emma turns to her husband and can immediately sense his anxiety. She goes over and wraps her arms around him tightly and leans her chin gently in the crook of his shoulder.

"It's okay," she whispers quietly. "Nothing will happen to her. My magic is strong."

"Aye, I know that Love, but a man still worries about his prized possession. A captain's heart always belongs to his ship."

"I thought you said your heart belonged to me in your wedding vows?" she teases with a smirk.

"I did mean that, every word… it's just hard to let others invade it, especially young, unruly lads and lasses."

"Keep in mind, two of those unruly teens are coming home with us," Emma points out, kissing Killian's cheek gently.

The two sigh heavily in anxiety as CJ swings down from the mast on a rope and lands perfectly on her feet.

"She's much better than my dad's _Jolly Roger_ ," the blonde girl says, coming to the gangplank. "You take her out often?"

"When it's appropriate," Killian answers.

"Well, our ship has been moored on the Isle since before Harriet was born, which means it's covered in barnacles, algae, and seaweed, and since there are a lot of crocodiles in the water, they use the exterior for a chew toy."

The captain can't help but shudder at the thought.

Eventually, Harry emerges from the interior of the ship, leaving the War Frats and Gil to do what they will.

"Ready to go," he declares.

The group of four begin slowly walking away, off the docks and out of the harbour, but not before Killian gives one last longing glance at his beautiful ship before heading towards home.

Once they reach the white picket fence of the Swan home and open the door to the foyer, the two teens are amazed at how detailed and comfy the place looks. They'd never seen a kitchen or dining room before and Harry immediately goes for the brown felt couch, putting his feet up.

Emma immediately comes over and forces his boots to the floor.

"Couple of ground rules: no shoes on the furniture, don't touch the artwork or antique things on the walls or shelves, don't leave the front door unlocked at night, and above all, try not to make a mess."

The two teens look at the Saviour as if they don't even know what rules were, but with the stern expression on the blonde's face and the knowledge that she had magic, they knew better than to try and break these guidelines.

"There are two rooms on the second floor and one on the third," she says, holding Killian's hand as the two walk up the stairs together. She squeezes his hand to express her own anxiety over the fact that they are letting strangers into their home. While _The Jolly Roger_ was Killian's pride and joy, the home she shared with her husband was special to her, despite some of the Dark One memories that had occurred here. It takes the teens a few moments before they realize that they are supposed to be following the couple.

"This is our room," Emma indicates, opening the door to the master bedroom where her and Killian's beautifully decorated room and well-made queen-sized bed stood. She goes to the next room down the hall. The spare room which will likely become the baby's room when he or she is born. Right now, it's just storage, filled with some clutter.

Using her magic, Emma poofs the boxes and furniture down to their garage and makes a nice twin bed appear as well as adding some curtains.

"If you two want to share a room, I can add another bed in here, but my son, Henry's room is on the third floor, so Harry you're welcome to that one if you'd like."

The siblings look at one another for a long moment before CJ slowly shifts into the "guest room." While it's pretty, frilly, too bright, and almost sunny looking for her tastes, she could make it work for herself. She takes over her red overcoat and throws it onto the rocking chair. She lays down on the bed and puts her feet up. Immediately, she catches Emma's warning glance and kicks off her boots.

The couple then guides Harry up to the third floor and open Henry's room. There's still an air of sadness and longing every time Emma goes into the room. She knew Henry was off having his own adventures, but she couldn't help but miss him, as a mother would. While this room mostly saw the beginning of the rebellious teen years of her son, and that he moved back and forth from here and Regina's place, it was still a place the young author called a home, mess, and all. There were shelves of comic books and regular books along the wall next to the window. His desk and lamp lay in the corner close to his closet and several windows looked out

"If you damage my son's room in any way, you will be sleeping in the basement, which Crystal told me you've already had to do." the blonde warns before turning to let the teenager get settled.

…

"It's probably not what you're used to in Auradon," Belle says, as she, her husband, step-daughter, son, "alternate" son walk up the stone pathway to a large house that was orange in colour with green trimming. A nice historical house that was Mr. Gold' home for 28 years during the curse and was now the home he shared with his wife and son. "But Rumple made it home."

"If you don't like it, you're welcome to crash at my place," Crystal offers, as she cradles Gideon in her arms.

"I don't care about any of that," Ben says humbly. "Anywhere that is safe is fine by me."

"Man, it's like you're a clone of Belle," Crystal smirks in a sort of teasing way, as Rumple unlocks the heavy wooden doors. Paige and Patrick remain quiet and look down at their shoes quietly, neither of them is really sure why they are staying with this family. What is their relation to this family? For Ben it was easy, he's the son of Belle and King Beast, but apparently, in this realm, it's Belle and Rumpelstiltskin. It's clear that Ben knows their relation, but has yet to tell them.

Inside, everything is decorated with antiques, considering Rumple was a pawn shop dealer for 28 years. From the crystal chandelier in the foyer to lovely oak cabinets in the hallway to a large sitting room with big windows and comfortable furniture, the place had a tasteful and elegant feel to it.

"It's a beautiful home," Ben says in admiration.

"It is very nice," Paige adds.

"Very rustic," Patrick agrees.

"Thank you," Rumple says, quite impressed with the boy's and the twins' manners.

Just then, Gideon begins to get fussy. Belle scoops her son up and goes through a swinging door to enter the kitchen and get him a bottle.

The rest of them stand there in the front hall in awkward silence until the Dark One speaks up.

"Perhaps you would like something to drink? Tea anyone?"

"Do you have anything fizzy?" Patrick asks.

"Well, considering Crystal often raids our fridge, there is usually something of that nature in there," the imp smirks.

"Shut up, I've never touched your fridge!" the eldest girl snaps. "It's full of baby food and breast milk."

"We'll find you something Lad," Rumple says, following behind his wife. Patrick takes Paige's hand and guides her into the kitchen leaving Crystal to give the tour to her half-brother, even though she didn't technically live there.

"Well the dining room is towards the back near the kitchen…" she points to the door next to the stairs. "Down there is the basement where my dad likes to spin straw into gold and do a bunch of other stuff, so it's best to steer clear of it. And this…"

She says opening the wooden doors.

"Is the library,"

Further to the back of the house was a sort of hexagonal room with more big windows that looked out on the quiet street of Storybrooke. Inside the room where shelves and shelves of books, so many that there was even a small ladder that could help someone reach any particular book. There were several comfortable reading chairs and lamps in the centre of the room and even a window seat for one to read in the sunlight. There was also a huge wooden desk towards the side where Rumple often did any important business. It could be assumed that he turned what was once his office into a library for his wife. There were books scattered everywhere in place, it was not exactly neat and clean, some were stacked in piles on the floor and on the desk. There were a bunch of interesting tools on the desk, likely meant for fixing books. No doubt a bunch of the books came from the Storybrooke library as Belle would bring some home to either read or restore them. There were also several baby toys around, likely to keep Gideon occupied while his mother read.

"When it comes to books, my step-mom is not subtle that she likes to read them."

Ben takes a volume of the shelf.

" _The Great Gatsby_ ," he reads the title aloud. "Never heard of it."

"Seriously?! That one's a classic! Man, Auradon seriously needs to update its libraries," Crystal says. She then reaches over and takes the book from him. She then uses her magic to shut the doors.

"Why'd you do that?" the king asks, a little nervous.

"So, we can talk."

"About what?"

"You and Mal. There's something that needs to be fixed between the two of you and as your unofficial older sister, it's my job to help fix it."

"There's nothing really to tell," Ben shrugs sadly, deciding to busy himself by looking at more books.

Crystal shakes her head. She wasn't the only one having relationship drama, but she was sure that they could help each other. She magics a chair over, causing Ben to stumble and sit down. She then sits across from him.

"I don't buy that for a second, how about I tell you about my infamous exes first and then we'll discuss the two of you, sound fair?"

"Why?" Ben asks.

"Because we're family, and families help each other."

…

"Wow, sweet pad," Jay says as Regina opens the door into the large front hallway painted white, chandelier hanging above and the stairs behind the front door leading to the second storey.

"Thank you," the former Evil Queen says proudly. "Now there are several guest rooms upstairs, you can take your pick,"

"Sweet," Jay says before heading upstairs. "Do you have cable?"

"Yes, if you want, I can put one of the TVs in your room. Plus, Henry loved video games so there are several systems here too."

Jay leans over the rail. "Will you please be my mom instead of Evie's?"

Regina laughs and so do the rest of the group.

"I get the room with the biggest closet!" Dizzy shrieks as she follows Jay up the stairs, Robbie and Doug go too, leaving Evie as she watches her alternate mother go towards the kitchen, past the beautiful, very artsy, and modern living room. The young teenager soon follows and stands in the doorway of a small, but nice kitchen with an island in the center and a small crystal chandelier hanging above it.

Immediately, Regina begins to pull out pots and pans from the cupboards. She brings out all the ingredients she needs.

"Hungry already?" Evie asks.

Regina turns and can't help but smile at the girl. She couldn't help but be amazed at how beautiful and sweet Evie was. Another pang of guilt enters her stomach. If she hadn't been manipulated by her mother and made herself barren, would her daughter be as beautiful as this? She does her best to fight the tears and busies herself with opening a can of tomato sauce.

"No, but I've lived with teenage boys long enough to know it won't be long before they start raiding the refrigerator."

"Doug isn't usually like that," Evie says.

"I know, but no doubt Jay is."

"Shouldn't we just order from _Granny's_?" the girl asks.

"You think the Evil Queen can't cook," Regina says, raising her eyebrow in a sort of teasing fashion.

"My mom on the Isle couldn't, so she made the servants do it, but they weren't very good at it, so we mostly had beans and salad to protect our figures."

"Sounds awful," the raven-haired Regina says.

"Could have been a lot worse,"

"Well, I figured you kids could use a home-cooked meal. How does lasagna sound?"

"Great," the girl smiles.

The two then go into an awkward silence, that is until Regina reaches down a recipe book.

"Would you mind going to the fruit bowl in the dining room and getting me three large apples?"

"S-sure, what for?"

"Dessert," the woman says cheerfully. "Ever heard of apple turnover?"

Evie shakes her head.

"Well, how about you help me."

"Are you sure you want me to?" the girl says, a still little bit hesitant about accepting Regina's trust, despite how loving and protective the woman had been since they'd first been properly introduced.

"I'd love the company," the woman says earnestly.

Within a little while, Evie and Regina are working side-by-side. With the lasagna in the oven, the kitchen was filled with many delicious smells and had a real sincere atmosphere, something right out of a fairy tale. A mother showed a daughter how to slice and prepare Regina's famous apple turnover, complete with cinnamon, and as a special treat, icing sugar too. At one point, Evie playfully blows flour across the ivory counter before Regina puts the girl's nose right into it. This causes Evie to sneeze and flour to fly into her face. Despite feeling embarrassed, the two of them laugh at one another, a genuine laugh shared between mother and daughter.

The daughter of the Evil Queen had never felt such warmth and love from a parent in a long time, real love, not the kind that had to be earned by looking for a prince and ensuring her face and hair were always flawless. It was a good feeling, one that she never wanted to go away. Maybe coming through the portal wasn't such a bad thing after all.

Regina, while still sad inside, loved that she had company in her house again. After Zelena moved out with Robin and Henry off in another realm, she'd been feeling lonely, even though she was too proud to show it, to share some time with someone else instead of drinking apple cider and watching 90210 reruns alone as she spent most her nights these days.

Even when Carlos came to the house, following the address that was in Dude's collar, he heard the laughter and looked inside the kitchen. He immediately feels envy towards the happy scene. Why couldn't he have that with his mother? Or rather an alternate mother? Right, because she was dead. He still could not believe that Emma had killed her and for seemingly no reason at all. And yet, the blonde woman gets to have a life and a family, while Cruella De Vil does not. He then turns away and wanders into the living room, where Dude joins him on his lap. He takes an apple from a nearby fruit bowl and eats it while he ponders what he's going to do next.

…

Mal follows Maleficent down the streets towards her temporary home.

"It's not like my castle in the Enchanted Forest, or what you're used to in Auradon, but it's home," the mistress of all evil says, as they walk up the gravel path towards a pleasant looking two-storey blue house with white shutters and trim. There's a rather nice garden laid out around the gravel path and a front porch with a porch swing.

"Trust me, compared to what I had on the Isle, this is amazing," the purple-haired teenager says to reassure the woman.

Maleficent still wrings her hands slightly before opening the door to a nice front foyer with a small wooden vanity against the wall, contrasting the striped blue wallpaper. To her left is a sophisticated-looking sitting room with plush furniture and a tv mounted on the wall. Ahead of her are the stairs leading up to the second storey, with windows opposite to the wooden banister.

"Lily?" Maleficent calls. "Lily darling are you home?"

The two wait for an answer, but when there is no response, the mistress of all evil removes her coat and hat and walking towards the kitchen at the end of the hall.

"Would you like something to drink Mal?" she offers.

"Just water please," the girl says quietly as she slowly follows her "alternate" mother down into a bright blue kitchen with pots and pans hanging above a kitchen island surrounded by stools.

As Maleficent mills about the kitchen getting a glass from the white cupboards and filling it at the stainless-steel sink.

"I can never get enough of the luxuries this land offer," she says, before handing the glass to Mal. "Never having to fetch water or build a fire to cook with, not that I needed to, considering I had slaves to do it for me or just use my magic."

"You have magic?" Mal says, her eyes becoming wide.

"Yes, runs in my veins. Tell me do you have it as well?"

"Yes," Mal nods. "But it doesn't seem to work here."

"Well, that's no good. Perhaps I can consult Rumpelstiltskin about this. He's the one who brought magic to Storybrooke after all. He may have an answer to why your magic doesn't work properly."

"You mean, you're okay with me having magic?" Mal says in surprise.

"But of course dear, it's part of who you are and you should be proud of it. Clearly, if your mother was as powerful as me, great magic runs in your veins."

"Really?"

"Yes, don't you tell me that you were never told this before. Your mother should have been very proud of the magic you've been given."

"She was always more impressed with herself than me," Mal mutters. "And she never taught me how to control them either. Auradon didn't help either."

"And why is that?"

"Because no one's allowed to use magic,"

"Not allowed… my god, how could they think to ever suppress such a thing."

The purple-haired teen shrugs. "It's just the way things are."

"Well it shouldn't be that way," the Mistress of all Evil declares. "I can help you child, and there are several other magic wielders than can help you."

"You shouldn't bother," Mal says. "We're only going to be here for so long."

"Better safe than sorry Mal, I think helping you will make this no magic thing a bit easier in the future, even though I hardly approve of the idea of suppressing part of who you are."

 _My thoughts exactly_ , Mal thinks to herself, taking a sip of water. Her heart beats with excitement at the prospect of learning how to use actual magic properly. She didn't have to hide it or be worried about making Ben mad.

Just then, the front door slams shut and Lily stands in the front room, removing her coat and throwing it carelessly on the vanity.

"Lily darling," Maleficent says, beckoning to her other daughter. "Are you okay?"

While the blonde woman cannot see her eldest as she's putting some dishes away, the daughter of Maleficent can and she locks eyes with Lily. The dark-haired girl's eyes laser into Mal's green ones and the look on her face is one of pure anger and hatred. Despite having faced much worse, the purple-haired teen still swallows a large lump in her throat. She remains brave, wondering what this girl's problem was. What did she do to piss of Lily?

Lily bites her lip and manages to say a few words.

"I'm fine Mom, I just had to go get a few things."

"Okay then, but make sure you say hello to Mal,"

"I will," she says in fake calmness.

Both Lily and Mal's eyes remain locked for a few more minutes before the younger daughter sees Lily's brown eyes begin to glow gold and a low growl exits her throat. She then goes upstairs without a word to the unwanted houseguest

"Home, sweet, home," Mal mutters to herself nervously, feeling she was most definitely not welcome here.

 _A/N: I'm back. Everyone, I'm sorry that it's been so long since I updated, but I've recently just lost my grandfather and I've been taking some time to recover. But for your patience and continued support, here is an extra long chapter for everyone to enjoy. Just let me know if I should add Chad's experience into this too._


	64. Chapter 63: Her Brother's Keeper

Chapter 63: Her Brother's Keeper

"So, you want to tell me what happened between you and Mal?" Crystal asks, sitting comfortably in the chair, acting almost like Ben's therapist.

The king of Auradon hesitates, leaning forward in his own chair. He looks down at his feet and bites his lip, not entirely thrilled with the idea of sharing what went wrong in his relationship with practically a total stranger, despite their alleged relationship. So much had happened recently that it takes a few minutes for the memories to come rushing back. The look of hurt and pain on his true love's face, her pleading with everyone to believe her that she hadn't done anything wrong, him picking up their betrothal ring after she'd thrown it back to him in anger. He fumbles in his pocket and discovers that the ring is still in his pocket. He examines the filigree designs and the engraved face of his father carefully, still stalling, not wanting to open up to Crystal because of how ashamed and hurt he was over everything.

He felt like such an idiot for letting Mal down, in a sense betraying her by suspending her from Auradon Prep. It certainly wasn't his choice, he was pressured into it by how own parents and the headmistress of the school. Sometimes he wished that he wasn't the king, that he could just be a normal teenager and he wouldn't be put through things like this. He could actually follow his heart without the sake of the kingdom and his subjects getting in the way. If things weren't so complicated, maybe he and Mal would have made up by now and could work together to get everyone home again.

"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it," Crystal says. "I just thought it would be a good idea…"

"How… how did you even know that Mal and I were together?" he asks.

"I'm an observant person. I could actually sense the tension between you two. Plus, when you guys came through the portal, she hardly left your side at all. When Killian offered to cut the ropes from your wrists he asked if you were special to her and she said that you were. When I ask if you were her boyfriend, she kind of hesitated."

Ben grimaces and looks down at the floor again; while it was clear that Mal still cared for him, she'd obviously meant it when she yelled that she never wanted to him again. This breakup was much more serious than their last one, to the point that the son of Belle and Adam wonders if it was permanent this time.

"Stings huh?" she asks sympathetically. "Well, let me just tell you right now, love sucks."

Ben looks up at her with his hazel-green eyes, unsure of how to respond.

"It does, it sucks more than anything and that's because it's extremely complicated."

He nods and puts the ring back in his pocket.

"Would it help if I shared some of my not-so storybook romances? Let you know that your breakup probably wasn't the worst one in the world."

The king shrugs and Crystal go on to tell her alternate brother all about her past romances. From the guy who took her to court, even though she was merely defending herself against the would-be psychopath, to the guy who collected sculptures of 70's male underwear models. From the weirdo with 8 ferrets to another ex-boyfriend with an obsession that there would be a Daredevil 2 to the guy who made macaroni and bead necklaces as a hobby and gave her one for Valentine's Day. She also mentions the "suitor" who tried to mug her and ask her out, planning to use the money he'd stolen for the date. With each passing story, Ben does his best to not laugh, trying to be polite and listen to her, but it becomes harder and harder as the stories become more bizarre. He cannot believe the kind of relationships Crystal has had, each one sounding like something out of a book or weird movie.

"It's okay to laugh," she says when she hears him snort loudly and try to hide over how she lets the ferrets loose on her ex. "I've learned to laugh about it a long time ago. It's much better than getting upset about them."

By the end of her stories, both have been laughing hard enough to cry. As the two simmer down from the burst of happiness, Crystal conjures up two bottles of water and offers one to Ben. He's a little freaked out about the sudden use of magic.

"Do all of you seriously use magic casually like that?" he asks.

"Probably. I know I have a bad habit of using it very often, but I'm pretty sure Regina, Emma, and my Dad use it to do things when nobody's looking."

"Don't you ever think magic is dangerous?"

She gives him a look. "You're talking to the daughter of the Dark One… of course magic is dangerous. Hell, it is how you guys got here in the first place, me experimenting with untested magic. But most people around here just deal with it; it's an occupational hazard of living in a town full of storybook characters. If you want to blame anyone, blame my dad, he's the one who brought magic here in the first place. It does come in handy when fighting villains though, and we've gotten more than our fair share of those."

Ben decides not to push the issue any further by taking a long sip of water; clearly, their laws about magic, if there were any way that it can be useful, despite how dangerous and unstable it could be.

Crystal continues with her stories, doing her best to power through the Mason story. Ben feels great sympathy for her as she wipes away a few tears; the fact that this man told her that he loved her, he helped her discover her true origins, then breaks up with her over a text message and then completely vanishes… none of that can be easy. He reaches out and pats her shoulder as she sucks in a shaky breath to try and compose herself. Compared to her love life, Ben feels as though he got off easy, especially in terms of the breakup, at least his separation was face to face.

She smiles at him for the comfort. "Thanks… the wound is still pretty fresh, despite it being almost a year ago… Love can be so painful if that…" she pauses and takes a long drink of water, this time stalling to help herself think. "Belle keeps insisting that I try to find Mason, but if I'm honest with myself… I'm really just afraid of seeing him and feeling that pain all over again… I'm afraid that he won't want to get back together with me and I'm afraid that he was my one chance at love… I don't know if you can understand fully but…"

"Maybe not fully…" Ben says. "But I can understand why you're avoiding it, to avoid the pain and being afraid that it's truly the end."

Crystal smiles and reaches over to grab Ben's hand. He's surprised by the comfort but then smiles too, appreciating how both of them were helping one another.

"For the longest time, it felt like I'd never feel love ever again. After all, I killed the only person who loved me unconditionally and it just seemed that I attracted freaks and weirdos. I was like a beacon for them. Now, I wonder if it's because I'm the daughter of Rumpelstiltskin, but I'm starting to wonder if I even deserve it. Like my father has always said, villains don't get their happy endings."

"You're far from a villain," Ben says earnestly. "You may be rough around the edges, but you have the soul of a good person. That's what I believe and it's why I let the Villain Kids come to Auradon in the first place, to give them their second chance and let them discover the good inside themselves."

The elder sister sniffs and smiles at him. "Thanks… sometimes I just need reassurance, I guess. Darkness can be a fickle thing that causes doubt about one's true nature."

"Just like love," Ben deduces.

She nods. "Well, I've shared my heartbreak, you ready to share yours?"

The king swallows and takes another long drink of water.

"It is only fair," she says with a mischievous wink. "Take your time."

It's then that Ben realizes what he needs to do. He doesn't need to talk about it or wallow in self-pity, he has to act.

Ben then gets up and hugs Crystal tightly.

"Thank you," he says.

"For what?"

"For helping me realize why I've been avoiding everything about this."

"But we didn't even talk about it…"

"I don't need to talk, I just need to do it. No offence Crystal, but I need to talk about this with someone else… someone who means the world to me."

She smiles, knowing what he means. "And thank you for listening and helping me find the true root of my own problems were."

"I guess we're more like brother and sister now," Ben smiles.

"I've always wanted a brother," she smirks.

"You already have one."

"I meant one that I can have actual conversations with and usually don't end with me changing a diaper or cleaning up vomit."

Ben wrinkles his nose but then lets out another laugh. He gets, up mentally preparing himself for what's going to happen next. While he is afraid, he knows that he has to talk about this with his true love… and whatever happens, will happen.

"Do you know where Maleficent lives?"

 _A/N: Sorry it's been so long since I updated, but here's a nice chapter where Crystal and Ben bond like brother and sister, while helping each other through their turbulent relationships_


	65. Chapter 64: Dateable

Chapter 64: Dateable

"Well," Crystal says to herself. "This was fun, but I can't do any more damage around this place."

She stands up and exits the library, heading towards the kitchen. She walks in to find Belle standing next to the stove, chopping vegetables while a big pot of water is boiling. Gold sits at the dining room table with Gideon cradled in his arms, giving his son a bottle. Paige and Patrick are sitting at the table as well, sipping sodas straight from the can.

"So, I'm going to take off," she says, standing in the middle of the kitchen.

"Where's Ben?" Belle asks. "You two were in the library an awfully long time."

"I gave him relationship advice; we had a brothers-sister talk with him to help fix things with Mal. Speaking of which, I know you two are technically supposed to be my aunt and uncle, but if you need any advice, I'm just a few streets over. Anyways, hopefully, he's going to patch things up with her and then we can focus on getting everyone home. So, I'll see you tomorrow at your shop Dad…"

She leans down and gives him a side hug. "I do have a key to get in."

"Preferable over your usual method of entering places," he mutters.

"Love you too Dad," she smirks sarcastically.

She turns to Gideon. "I'll hopefully see you tomorrow too," she coos, giving him a kiss on the forehead.

She nods at Paige and Patrick, "Good to meet you two, seriously if you need help with anything at all, just give me a ring."

She then goes and gives Belle a hug as well. "And I'll see you tomorrow as well. Any and all researchers will be required to send these kids home."

"Have a good night then," Belle says, smiling.

"See you later," Crystal says, nodding before exiting the kitchen. She locks the front door and begins walking down the street towards her own home.

She lets out a deep sigh of relief. All the kids have a place to stay for the night and all the portal nonsense can be figured out tomorrow, she's pretty sure she left the book with the portal ingredients in her Dad's shop. It probably hasn't been touched because of everything that's happened. She does feel bad for accidentally bringing all these kids here, even though according to Mal it was mostly Uma's fault, but Crystal's own portal testing did receive these teenagers, who are now realms from their real home and parents. Although, for the kids on the Isle, it's probably a blessing in disguise… She can relate, she has her own crappy parent, despite him doing his best to improve. But she's already been a therapist to one person today, and that's plenty.

Right now, she just wants to go home, microwave a _Ready-Meal_ and popcorn, and watch _Netflix_ , it's been a long and confusing day and she's ready to call it quits. She thought about getting take-out from _Granny's_ but by now, she just wants to spend the night alone, no more relatives. She watches as the sun sets behind the vast forest of trees, separating their bizarre fantastical world from the rest of the Land Without Magic.

Finally, she reaches her apartment and fumbles to get her key out. However, when she's about to grasp the knob, it opens on its own.

 _Not again_ , she growls in her mind. _Who else finds the need to break into my apartment?!_

She swallows hard, letting one of her hands light up as a precaution. She reaches in and turns on the downstairs light. There only seems to be boxes and stacks of junk, some of them casting sharp shadows due to the exposed lightbulb hanging above them, but Crystal knows there is someone else here.

"Whoever you are, get the hell out!" she barks angrily, still hovering in the doorway. "Look I'm sick of this and I'm not afraid to use my magic to get my point across."

"Oh, trust me, Love, I know good and well that ye mean that…" a voice says smoothly.

Crystal nearly jumps out of her skin when she sees Harry Hook perched on the old counter of what was once likely a shop that she loved underneath. His boots dangle forward at a strange angle, as the juvenile pirate attempts to pose on the piece of furniture. His blue eyes seem to sparkle in the dim lighting and his well-defined and broad shoulders flex as he hops off the counter and stands in the centre of the room.

"God you scared me," Crystal says, turning to face the son of Captain Hook.

"Was never my intention, although you did take a rather long time to come back, I was about to giv' up on ye."

"Maybe you should have," she muttered. "What the hell are you doing here anyway? I thought the last time you broke into my apartment; I made my intentions pretty damn clear,"

"Ye made 'em **_crystal_** clear," he smirks, putting emphasis on her namesake.

"So why do you find the need to keep entering my home?"

"A pirate should never back down once he's found treasure."

The line makes Crystal roll her eyes more than blush, which she did both of.

"I don't think you actually understand the difference between treasure and a human being."

"Frankly, I don't see a difference, when I see someting I like, I can be relentless."

"You know women are not things to possess, right?"

Harry shrugs as if this makes no difference to him. Clearly, the emphasis on equal rights is lost on him, which should be expected if he was raised by villains.

"And why do you find the need to keep pursuing me, I've made my intentions quite clear,"

" ** _Crystal_** ," he purrs. His blue eyes seem to narrow in, like a cat approaching its prey.

This time, the emphasis on the word sends shivers up her spine, and not the good kind. He's coming off as creepy rather than charming. It's true that he wasn't hard to look at; he did have a particularly alluring appearance as well as some clever wit and concern for other human beings like his sister CJ, but she still can't shake the sinister vibe from him. From what Mal and the other kids have told her, Harry has a couple of screws loose in his head and he's more than willing to do anything to get his way… his pursuit of her being one of them it seemed.

"So why can't you get it through your thick skull that I'm not interested?"

"Because I know it's not true," he says, taking a step closer. He wants to keep going as if trying to seduce by sauntering towards her slowly, but he was wary of what the girl could with her magic, so he plants his boots on the floor.

"I know you care about me, that yer cheeks go pink when yer near me. I know ye like me too, yer just too afraid to admit it."

"Or maybe I'm turned off by the fact that you have no respect for boundaries. Breaking into someone's house is not attractive, it's a felony…" She sighs, knowing that trying to explain laws to this kid is going to be completely moot.

"A princess does need her castle," he shrugs.

"Please, I'm no princess. I'm the offspring of an imp that is the embodiment of all darkness; the closest thing I would be is an elf, if that, maybe an orc."

"Whatever ye may be, yer a very attractive one."

Crystal rolls her eyes again. She ignores the fact that her heart is accelerating, and she refuses to look into his bright blue eyes because it may cause this indignant exterior to melt a little bit. It was flattering that he found her attractive enough to pursue, but why? She only attracted freaks and weirdos and any relationship that she did have that was good, ended in tears and broken hearts. She also wasn't the most beautiful person either, average looking and hardly the type that guys from all over would be knocking down doors to date her.

"A lot of people don't say no to you, do they?" she groans.

"Not often, I tend to get whatever I want, especially with this lovely piece," he shows her his hook that gleams in the light.

"Yes, your imitation hook, but I have bad news for you buddy, weaponry is not attractive, especially when you're trying to appear approachable or dateable to a girl."

"Dateable?" he asks in confusion.

"Have you never heard that word before?"

The pirate shrugs.

"A date is when you take someone that you like out to a movie or dinner or even a walk along the beach, something simple, and you talk about your interests, and you get to know each other. It's much more appealing and attractive than stalking and breaking into people's homes."

The smile leaves Harry's face as he ponders this new information. He's never even heard of a date before. It seemed interesting, and at the same time boring. There didn't seem to be any excitement; no thrill of the chase or the passion for a reward.

"It's what most people do in this day and age if they like someone. Trust me, it took your dad a little while to figure this out too. How about you go home and think about it and…" she sighs taking a deep breath. Maybe it was time she took her own advice, the kind that Ben had taken to go and fix things for Mal, and move forward. Her hands shook slightly at the thought and she bites her lips hard. "If you come here to talk to me without breaking and entering, I might consider you dateable."

She then gently waves her hand and poofs Harry to the front porch of Emma and Killian's house. She then locks the door and puts a small enchantment on it to prevent any further tampering with the locks. She heads upstairs to microwave food and find a new show to binge watch. However, through the next hour, she hasn't realized that she has not stopped smiling.

 _A/N: Hey everyone, sorry for such a long wait, but here's a new chapter. Happy Easter to everyone. (If you celebrate it)._


	66. Chapter 65: Amends for Amour

Chapter 65: Amends for Amour

Ben sucks in a deep breath as he approaches Maleficent's modest little home. His stomach is turning heavily to the point where he wants to throw up. All the confidence that he had built up in front of Crystal about discussing his relationship problems with the person who means the world to him has vanished, leaving him a nervous wreck. He knows he should just suck it up and do this, tell her how he truly feels about her, but the anxiety of what could happen is overpowering. He was so unsure of how Mal would react and his worst fear is that she would reject him immediately and putting the final nail in the coffin of their relationship. As he approaches the blue little house, he feels as though he loses his nerve more with every step. Maybe he should have talked it out with Crystal first instead of going headlong into what will likely be an emotional rollercoaster ride. Every time he sees her beautiful face, he can't help but think of how hurt it looked when he "betrayed" her by choosing the kingdom over his true love.

There was another thing that is adding to his nerves was that he was approaching the house of Maleficent, the mistress of all evil. While he had already encountered the blonde woman briefly before in the park and she did seem rather tame and reasonable compared to her Auradon counterpart, he still wasn't sure if he could trust her. After all, it was more than likely that this version of the wicked woman could also transform into a dragon and the last time he'd had an encounter with her, she'd ruined his coronation and was ready to burn him to a crisp if Mal hadn't stepped in to turn her own mother's magic against her. It was obvious that magic flowed freely through the veins of Storybrooke and this meant that the transformation into a winged reptile was very possible.

He hesitates at the steps of the porch before walking up and knocking on the door. He can hear footsteps in the hall, he's trying to prepare himself for what he will say to her when she opens the door, seeing those long purple locks and beautiful green eyes again. His heart pounds so hard against his chest that it just might break his ribcage.

However, instead of Mal, a dark-haired woman answers the door. For a moment, she looks rather surprised to see a handsome young boy on her mother's doorstep, but immediately she becomes annoyed when she sees his weird looking outfit, meaning he was from the freakish Auradon world.

"Who the hell are you?" she asks, her eyebrows immediately creeping together. Her brown eyes examine him up and down with great disapproval, as it seems she's taken an instant disliking to him even though she's never met him before.

"I'm… King Ben."

"So, do I have to bow to you or something?" the woman practically snarls at him. "Because I sure as hell do not answer to anyone."

"Most people just call me Ben," he admits, deciding to heed Emma's words and not use his royal title in this town. "Is Mal around?"

"What's it to you?" she says.

"I really need to speak to her,"

"Fine, I'll go see if she's around," the woman says, rolling her eyes before disappearing in the house.

Meanwhile, Mal is in the living room, examining some of Maleficent's magazines on the coffee table when Lily pokes her head in.

"Hey Grape Hair," Lily says, which makes Mal look up and grind her teeth together. She doesn't understand why Lily hates her so much, it's not like she did anything to her, except maybe staying in her house, but this would only be temporary. In retaliation, her eyes flash green to silently express her anger to her alternate sister.

"What?" she grits.

"There's a guy at the door for you. Says he really needs to speak to you."

At first, Mal thinks it's Ben, but it could also be Carlos or Jay, needing to talk to her about something important. She wasn't sure if she really wanted to talk to Ben if it was him, but if he needed her for something, she wouldn't say no.

Tossing the magazine back on the table, she stands up and goes to the front door, Lily watching her the entire time to the point that Mal is afraid that her "sister" will punch or attack her from behind. Instead, as she passes, she swears she can hear a faint growl in the back of Lily's throat.

Sure enough, Ben stands at the door, looking rather nervous and at the same time kind of sad. Part of her just wants to run upstairs and hide, but she's not exactly feeling welcomed into the house. Maybe talking with Ben and giving Lily some space will allow her to cool off and not… growl at her like an animal.

Ben swallows when he sees Mal, her beautiful green eyes looking like emeralds and her long purple hair tucked behind her ears. He manages to give her a weak smile and stand very tall, trying to keep his pride intact. He can feel his heart racing and his nerve has been lost completely once he sees her again.

Biting her lip extremely hard, Mal leans against the door frame and opens her mouth to speak.

"Hi," she says.

There's a long pause.

"Uh… Hi… Mal, I was wondering if we could talk?"

"About what?"

"Something that obviously requires you to not stand in the doorway and let the bugs in," Lily interrupts angrily. "Either discuss your problems outside or shut the damn door!"

Mal looks back at her sister, fighting to keep her anger in check. Her eyes flash green in anger, and in return, Lily's have begun to glow gold.

Thinking this might mean what she thinks it means, Mal immediately rushes out the door and shuts it behind her. She pants heavily while leaning against it as if she's just run a long distance, showing her own fear and anxiety to Ben.

The two look at one another and stand in complete silence for an eternity.

Finally, Ben breaks the silence.

"She's a piece of work."

"You have no idea," Mal responds. "I don't know why, but she just hates me."

"Did you say anything to her?"

"Haven't really been given the chance, if she's not snapping at me, I'm dead to her."

"Maybe we should just go for a walk…" he suggests. He holds his hand out as a peace offering of friendship rather courtship.

Mal's heart accelerates and her cheeks begin to flush a bit. She tries to ignore the feelings, but when she gazes upon his vulnerable face, she's warm all over. She can't seem to resist his beautiful hazel-green eyes as he watches her, waiting for a response.

Instead, she just walks past him, down the steps, starting their journey by herself.

Eventually, he catches up to her, but she tries to ignore his eyes.

"Mal…" he begins. "We really need to talk."

"About what?" she says, feigning ignorance and continuing to walk forward down the street towards town.

"You know what,"

"There's nothing to talk about,"

"Of course, there is… Mal… I'm so sorry for what I did."

"You're sorry for choosing your kingdom over me?" she snaps. She begins to speed walk faster, forcing Ben to try and keep pace with her.

"Mal, it was a stupid thing to do, I should have believed you when you said you didn't do any of those things."

"And yet you still suspended me from Auradon Prep."

"I didn't have a choice…"

"Oh yes you did," she says, stopping in the middle of the street, turning on her heels to face him. She tries to remain angry, grinding her teeth and glaring at him. All those feelings that had been shoved to the side due to their current situation come bubbling back up. She tries to fight the tears forming in her eyes. "You could have chosen to believe me, asked for more evidence or even ordered the guards to search for Uma, but instead you decided to pick the kingdom over me like you ALWAYS do!"

"Mal, you know it's not easy for me!"

"You keep making the same excuse over and over and it's getting annoying, just own up to the fact that you don't love me as much as you love being king!"

Her eyes glow the darker green, indicating her heavy mood.

"And clearly the feeling is mutual now," she adds before turning down a street, heading towards the forest.

"Is that why you raced to my rescue when I was attacked by Uma? Or when you were willing to trade the wand for my freedom? Or that you turned into a dragon to save me when she tried to strangle me? And jumped into the portal after me?"

These words catch her by surprise, to the point where she stops in her tracks. She's no longer able to hold back the tears and she lets them fall silently. Her shoulders slump in defeat as she tries to fight the feelings inside herself. She knows that she loves Ben so much; they are true love, but this love doesn't seem to mean anything if it just gets harder and harder for them to connect and be together. An apology can't make up for what he did to her, how he left her in limbo about whether she could stay at Auradon or not, and how he chose to listen to the adults instead of his heart.

Not able to handle these facts, Mal begins running towards the trees, not caring about Regina's warning of going in alone, she just had to escape all this, she needed to think. She doesn't know what to feel anymore.

Ignoring his cries for her, she runs as fast as she can until she comes to a well in the middle of a clearing. She practically collapses against it, letting her tears fall down her face. Her hands grip the hard stones to the point where her palms might be bleeding, her fingers are pure white from lack of blood, and she might as well be able to rip large chunks of the wall off with very little effort. She gazes at her reflection in the water below, wanting some way to get rid of all this pain. She just wants the world to stop.

She stands in silence for a long time, watching her hurt and confused face ripple in the waters. She knows that Ben had followed her here, but she ignores him, not wanting to face this agony.

Eventually, Ben says something that takes her by surprise.

"Love sucks."

This gets her attention; she lifts her head up and turns to face him.

"What?"

"Love sucks," he repeats, deciding to emulate the conversation that he had with Crystal, trying a different approach to try to talk to her. "It sucks and it's extremely complicated."

Mal bites her lip, very confused.

"Every time it seems we get to a good place in our relationship, something comes along and messes it up."

The daughter of Maleficent couldn't disagree with that. She nods slightly, wiping away some of her tears.

"It just sucks that it's like this. If I could get rid of the throne and the kingdom and have it just be you and me, I'd do it, to make you happy."

These words catch her off-guard. He had spoken the words that she had wanted so desperately to hear for a long time.

"I'll be honest with you Mal, sometimes I just hate being on the throne. So much paperwork and responsibilities. I can't be a normal kid; I can't do things like play video games or skateboard because I'm stuck in meetings of the royal court. I can't even get into trouble because I'm always being watched and such behaviours will reflect badly on my name, but you want to know the thing I hate the most about being king?"

He pauses and swallows, ready to spill his heart out.

"That it takes me away from you."

Mal wants to fight the smile beginning to form on her face. She can see it in his eyes that he's being honest, and she knows all too well what it's like to be separated from him or being unable to see him due to important duties or matters of state.

"I hate that me being king has made you miserable and that it makes me choose between you and the kingdom… two things I care about a lot, but I hate that I lose sight of which one is more important…"

He pauses for a moment, hoping that his honesty will at least soften her a little bit. She still might not forgive him, but at least he hasn't left anything on the table. If this is the end, he does want to let her know how much he truly loves her.

"In the end, it's not the kingdom that will keep me happy… it's you Mal. My lady-of-the-court, but more importantly my girlfriend. My true love. And I can't be happy if you're not happy. Like I said when I gave you that ring, I won't turn my back on you and I will always do right by you, no matter what happens… I'm sorry that I keep forgetting that and I'm sorry for what I did. I know you probably won't forgive me, but I just wanted to let you know how I feel and what I wish I could do to make it better… I know our relationship can't ever be perfect or have that fairy-tale ending, but I still think it's worth fighting for, with every fibre of my being. I love you Mal, and while I may not always show it, I always mean it"

There are new tears in her eyes and her heart is pounding against her chest, enough to crack a few ribs. Her eyes glowing green, but the colour is a much brighter hue than before. She still feels torn inside her stomach; anger and love fighting one another for dominance, like a war that has no clear winner. She knows he means those words and it makes her so happy, but she's still hesitating. Her mind tells her not to fall for it, but her heart says something else. She shakes her head to clear her mind, letting the light of her eyes die out and go back to normal.

It is then that she realizes that she shouldn't be making the mistake that Ben has.

He begins turning away in defeat when she runs forward and wraps her arms around him, much to the surprise of both of them. She pulls him in close and kisses his lips hard.

At that moment, both their hearts explode in happiness and a wave of rainbow light is expelled from the moment their lips touch. It creates a great stir in the forest, causing birds to take flight and an echo to be heard in the trees. The couple breaks apart, confused by the sudden gust of power and magic. They then turn back to each other.

Mal smiles at Ben while she runs her hands through his honey brown hair

"Love does suck, but it sucks a little less with you."

She pulls him in again for a long kiss. Ben wraps his arms tightly around her, never wanting to let go again. She was his true love, as he was hers and while the road ahead would not be easy, they could figure it out, together.

When they break apart to breathe, he smiles at her. "I don't expect you to forgive me right now, take all the time you need, but when we get back home, you're no longer suspended from Auradon and we'll deal with Uma ourselves."

From then on, the couple merely hold each other, embracing the quiet and the opportunity to be alone as the sun begins to set behind the trees. As if mirroring, their date on the beach, the two had made some amends and professed their love for one another, feeling the warmth and glow of pure happiness and love.

As the two stand in the silence, they fail to notice the plaque on the wishing well behind them that reads something very coincidental to their situation:

 **WISHING WELL**

 _For centuries, local legend has claimed that mystical waters run beneath this great_  
 _land. It is said that these waters possess the power to return that which is lost to its_  
 _rightful place. If you have lost something precious to you, drink from this well and_  
 _bear witness to this miracle as what is missing shall be returned._


	67. Chapter 66: Hidden Deception

Chapter 66: Hidden Deception

Carlos rolls over and looks at the clock on the nightstand. It's quarter to six in the morning; the sun has not risen over the trees to begin a new day in Storybrooke, Maine, the strange little town that he and his friends now inhabited. Despite the early hour and the mist surrounding the grass outside next to Regina's apple tree, this was the perfect time for him to sneak out. He knows everyone will still be asleep and that will give him more than enough time to go back down to Mr. Gold's shop and talk to his mother again. The entire night his mind was wondering what she had told him the day before; about her being in the Underworld and that Emma put him there. He can't wrap his head around why Emma would kill his mother? What had Cruella done for a HERO to end up killing her? He was so desperate to get answers that he hardly slept a wink, he was waiting and planning for the perfect time to leave. His insatiable desire for answers seemed to overpower further reasoning as to whether to trust this version of his mother because despite whether she was on the Isle or in the Underworld, she was still a villain. He knew he needed more information.

He quietly tosses off his blankets and puts his feet on the floor. He does his best to avoid making any sounds across the hardwood floors of one of Regina's guestrooms. She had put an extra bed in the room to allow Jay and him to share a room as they do at Auradon; which would have been nice if Jay hadn't spent most of the night chowing down on snacks and playing video games, Regina's son's video games. Usually, Carlos was the technology buff and video game enthusiast, but he had so much on his mind that he didn't even acknowledge when Jay asked him to play a racing game with him after midnight. He hoped that the late night would ensure that the son of Jafar would stay asleep, long enough for him to sneak out. He tries to avoid the wrappers on the floor and shift towards the door and his sneakers.

It also didn't help that Dude was sleeping in a laundry basket by his bed. Despite her early misgivings of having the dog in the house, Regina relented in allowing the pup to sleep in the house, provided in a laundry basket filled with old towels and not on her nice linen comforters. Dude didn't seem to mind the moderate accommodations and Carlos thinks he knows why because of the smell emanating from the cloths. His loyal companion had managed to smuggle some bacon from the kitchen and hide it in the towels to have a late-night snack. The clever dog somehow managed to bend the house rules to his benefit. Fortunately, it seemed that Dude was still fast asleep and only sniffed once as his master tiptoed past.

Just as he reaches his shoes, he hears a rustling and his heart stops when Jay suddenly sits up in bed.

"Where are you going, dude?" Jay mutters, staring at his best friend. "What time is it?"

Carlos swallows as his mind races to make up a lie. He shushes the son of Jafar sharply to ensure that he doesn't wake up the talking dog, he didn't want to deal with two people right now.

"It's early," he whispers. "I'm… I'm going downstairs to see if there's anything good in the fridge."

"Why not wait a few more hours?" his friend asks groggily.

"Because I didn't fill up on snacks like you did last night, I'm starving."

"Okay, okay, will you bring me up something?"

"M-maybe, but I might just go to the living room to see if I look through Regina's movie channels and find something to watch."

"I should come with you," Jay says, ready to push off his blankets to join his friend. "I really want to watch those superhero movies… like the ones on those posters in Henry's room. Iron Man and X-Men"

"N-No!" Carlos hisses, his mind racing. "How long did you stay up last night?"

"No clue,"

"Exactly, if we're going to find a way to go home, we need to be well rested. You know how mad Mal gets if one of us is slacking."

"I guess that's true, but what about you? Won't you be tired?"

"I actually got some sleep last night," Carlos lied. "You haven't just given it another hour or two and I'll tell you if the movies are worth the watch."

Jay is still struggling to keep his eyes open; it's clear to his best friend that he seriously does need more sleep. The son of Jafar yawns again, his mind and body still half-asleep, he decides that Carlos' reason makes sense and he was still exhausted to question this situation further.

"Okay, but don't steal all the good snacks," Jay says before rolling over to go back to sleep.

"Sure," Carlos says, feeling great relief in being able to put his shoes on in peace and not lie to his best friend any longer. He quickly sneaks down the hall, trying to avoid any creaky floorboards and quickly descends the stairs. He grabs his coat by the door and leaves by shutting the door as quietly as he can. He inhales the clean morning air and begins to walk down the path when his stomach growls. He rolls his eyes, realizing that all the talk of food with Jay has made him hungry. Cursing under his breath, Carlos sees the apple tree standing in the mist. Despite the queen's history with apples, she'd claimed that she had long since given up her villainous ways, plus his desire for some fast sustenance and getting to his destination overpowered his doubts. He quickly moves across the dewy grass and looks for the ripest apple he can find. He picks a nice juicy red one and takes a quick bite to ensure that it wasn't poisoned. He then begins to walk along the path towards Mr. Gold's shop.

…

Once he's reached the creepy old pawnshop near the clock tower in the middle of town, the son of Cruella De Vil picks the lock, getting better at it with each attempt, and enters into the seemingly pitch-black shop. The early morning light is barely entering the gray windows, which created sharp and insane looking shadows. He curses to himself for not bringing a flashlight but decides to use the light on his phone to navigate around all the crazy memorabilia. He ducks behind the same glass case as before and finds the mirror covered by the sheet.

He pricks his finger and the mirror transforms again before the same red-tinted image from before appears. He checks all around to ensure that he is alone before he begins calling for his alternate mother.

"Mom?" he says quietly at first.

No response

"Mom?" A little louder now.

Still no response.

"Ms. De Vil?" he asks. He decides to try something else as well. He begins knocking on the glass to try and get her attention. He does it continuously, hoping that the noise carries into the Underworld and she will eventually investigate.

Time seems to pass, and no one appears on the other side. Carlos notices that the shop is getting lighter as morning approaches. He becomes more desperate and knocks on the glass much harder, almost to the point of breaking it. He needs to see his mother and talk to her before Mr. Gold opens for business.

"All right, all right!" an annoyed voice snaps as the boy's insistent rapping finally attracts the attention.

Much like before, the woman with the long thin face dressed in heavy makeup to attempt to look beautiful and black and white hair appears in the mirror. She doesn't look at all pleased to have been disturbed from whatever she was doing, but her look softens slightly in order to continue her façade of being a loving woman.

"Carlos darling, we really do need to coordinate our visits better. A woman still needs her beauty sleep." Even if those in the Underworld didn't always need it.

"I'm really sorry Mom… I mean Ms. De Vil, but I wanted to talk to you again in private and finish our conversation from yesterday."

After Carlos had asked his mother what he could do to bring her back to the land of the living, Mr. Gold had entered once again, ruining their chances to discuss a plan. He was forced to leave not long after because he could hear Dude calling for him and didn't want the dog to discover his secret.

Carlos' stomach was still a bit uneasy about all this. This woman didn't seem much better than his own mother and she clearly had an anger problem, something that frightened him since childhood. His mother on the Isle had an extremely short temper and would scream or react violently whenever he did something to displease her, which seemed like every minute of every day. After all, it seemed he was merely born to guard her furs and be the woman's personal servant. He had grown to hate any kind of conflict and even when he was sword-fighting on the Isle or at Auradon, it still gave him flashbacks. He shudders to himself

"Yesterday?" she pauses. "Oh yes, of course… now could you please remind me how you and your little friends came to Storybrooke?"

"It was because of Uma, the daughter of Ursula, Harry, Captain Hook's son, and Gil, Gaston's son…"

 _Ursula, haven't heard from her in a long time…wonder how she's doing?_ Cruella thought to herself, hardly paying attention. _And Gaston so unfortunate for him_. After she'd lost James as her boy toy to the River of Lost Souls, Gaston would have been a marvellous substitution if he had not been pushed into the river before Prince Charming's twin brother.

"They were messing around with portals and ended up creating one that sucked all of us in. Meanwhile, Crystal told us that she was also experimenting with portals and the two just connected, depositing us here in the town. She described it almost like a telephone connection, our portal was the call and hers received it."

Cruella's blood red lips form into a smile. "Ah, now I understand." She didn't really care who Crystal was, but if that nuisance got in her way of coming back to the land of the living and exacting revenge on everyone, particularly the Saviour.

"What Mo- I mean Ms. De Vil? What do you understand?"

"Don't you see darling, it's absolutely perfect. We just need to do the same thing."

"You mean you want me to create a portal and you create the other and then the two of them will connect and you can come through?"

"Precisely darling precisely. This is exactly what I said… We are on the same wavelength. You truly are my son!" she says becoming extremely excited at the prospect of being free from this hellish world.

The happiness sparks a little hope inside Carlos, it's almost nice to see her smile. He returns the smile, even though she barely seems to notice.

"But what should I do now?" he asks.

"You need to find those lovely children and ask them how they made the portals. And then, you will show me the recipe through the mirror. We will then coordinate time of when we can both enact the portals, allowing us to return. But darling, we must do this quietly in order to avoid being found out."

"Why?" Carlos asks.

"Because…" the woman says, realizing that she's going to come up with a lie to deceive the boy, even though she's already got him on her side. "Doing something like this is extremely dangerous and risky, so I'm sure your little friends will not want you to it…"

Carlos swallows. Was this dangerous? Should he even do it now that she's brought it up? Would it be worth the risk? What if it all backfires and he ends up hurting people?

"Plus, I'm sure the Saviour doesn't want the truth of her secret kill getting out."

"O-Okay," the boy says.

Suddenly, he hears footsteps coming up to the front door of the shop.

"Oh no, someone's here, I have to go!"

"All right darling, but let's try to pick a better hour to meet. Good luck my little puppy."

Carlos covers the mirror back up and tries to slink into the shadows. He stays very low to the dusty hardwood floor, hoping that Rumpelstiltskin will not see him.

However, a new and different voice enters the shop. Carlos immediately recognizes it. His heart stops when he realizes that he'd forgotten to re-lock the shop, likely causing suspicion.

"If he wants me to use a key, avoid the magic, and respect the closed sign, the least he could do would be to remember to actually lock the damned thing," Crystal mutters to herself as she brushes off the unlocked. "I swear the old man is losing it. I wonder if they have nursing homes for trolls like him?"

Carlos lets a small snort of amusement escape his lips, but he quickly covers his mouth to mask the sound. Apparently, Crystal doesn't hear it, but goes to the counter of her father's shop and removes the stack of books from it.

"Now I just need to convince Regina to lend me the ingredients to make the portals again," she says to herself before heading to the door. She shuts it and ensures that **_she_** locks it this time, heading to an unknown destination.

Carlos' heart leaps a few beats when he realizes he won't have to face Uma, Harry, and Gil, all he'll need to do is get the ingredients for the portal from one of those books and he's on the way to seeing his mother again.

He gets up from the floor and pauses for a moment, staring at the mirror, his stomach turns once, the uncertainty of his mission and the risk of danger filling his mind. Could he trust this woman? Or was he better off motherless?

 _A/N: Hello everyone, I am so sorry for the long hiatus and wait, but as you know life gets in the way and the busyness of this past weekend with a family gathering has left me with little time to write. Speaking of family, here's another chapter where Carlos talks to his "alternate" mother._


	68. Chapter 67: Heart to Heart

Chapter 67: Heart to Heart

"Yes, Crystal that's fine," Regina says into her phone as she leans against her kitchen island. She has the ingredients for apple flavoured pancakes ready to mix as well as bacon ready to fry on the stove, ready for the hungry teenagers who would no doubt have raided her fridge within the next hour if she hadn't got up early. "I will get you the ingredients you need, but I don't want you going into my vault alone. The last time someone did that, Henry was nearly killed by those Agrabahn vipers. There are too many things from my Evil Queen days that I can't even remember if they're dangerous or not. So just hold out until after breakfast."

As she listens to the other end of the line, Evie comes into the kitchen and sits on the opposite end of the kitchen island, waiting for Regina to finish. She's dressed in a silk light purple pyjamas, which were not her usual style or colour, but they are comfortable, nonetheless. Many of the citizens of Storybrooke was asked to offer clothing and other essentials to the children while they were so far from home and while Evie appreciated the generosity, the styles could be updated a bit. She'd noticed through her time in the town that everything was from a different era… not medieval-like some of the things in Auradon, but outdated. She'd have to ask around to find out when this town was created and whether anything had been updated since. She remembers from several of the stories that the first Dark Curse lasted for 28 years, and it's clear a lot had changed since then.

The daughter of the Evil Queen texts Mal, wanting to hear from her best friend. She had planned to stay up late and text the daughter of Maleficent, but she had gone mysteriously silent for some unknown reason. Immediately, Evie suspected that it had something to do with Ben, as that was usually what happened with the two of them, and she hoped that it was positive. She did hope the two of them get back together and mend the rift that had been created through a series of misunderstandings and interferences from other people, including Uma. She wanted them to be happy, celebrate the true love they shared.

She then begins scrolling through the pictures on her phone, smiling the entire time. There were photos of her and her four closest friends. The group at dances, parties, picnics, the movies, and even the time they had a giant water balloon fight on the campus lawn. The moments make her eyes almost tear up because the happy emotions from those moments come flooding back to her. She couldn't imagine life without them, they were the people who kept her grounded, but also supported her in everything she did.

There were other pictures of her with some of the AKs, including Ben, Jane, Lonnie, and even a few with Audrey and Chad, and several more with Dizzy. There were also pictures of the various outfits from her fashion company, including a full-fashion show that happened during the spring. But the ones she loved the most were of her and Doug, her real prince charming. There are photos of them sharing desserts, working on projects together, the time Doug accidentally set of a bad chemical reaction in the chemistry lab, the two of them during the holidays, and some of them just having fun being with one another. Her smile is the widest when she goes through these images, memories that she will always cherish. She's so enthralled from walking down memory lane that she doesn't notice someone behind her.

"I'm guessing he's your one true love?"

Evie jumps, not realizing that Regina has been behind her for quite some time, mixing the pancake batter in her arms; and while it could be considered rude to be looking over someone's shoulder at their personal photographs, Regina only did it to get to know her alternate daughter better. She was curious of what the young girl's life was like at this Auradon place and based on the pictures she'd seen; it was clear Evie was the happiest she could ever be, having everything she could ever want in life. It amazed the mayor of this town that this girl in front of her was the most amazing and gifted person she could have ever imagined.

"Uh… yes, he's my boyfriend," she says.

"Boyfriend, or one true love?" the former Evil Queen asks, raising her eyebrow curiously.

Evie swallows and then bites her lip extremely hard, having never really thought about it like that. Doug had always been her boyfriend, her partner in fashion, and her real Prince Charming, but nothing else. She had never really taken the time to think deeply about whether they were true love or not. She'd like it to be true, but she had never really been sure, after all, Doug was never put under curses or targeted by Uma like Ben was. Her brown eyes go wide in panic as she races to find an answer.

Regina realizes that she's majorly overstepped, maybe Snow and David's lovey-dovey crap had rubbed off on her too much. While she'd known what it was like to be in love, she always had a more realistic and sometimes cynical approach to it, not the "I will always find you," stuff of the Charmings. Robin was always okay with that, and despite what the soulmates went through, they loved one another just as much as any other sappy true-love couple. She feels immediate guilt for putting the poor girl on the spot and decides to do damage control.

She fears that she's wrecking the bond that was already starting to form between her and her daughter.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to put you on the spot like that… you two seem very happy."

"We are," Evie says. She begins playing with the bracelet Doug had given her, the one that Regina had repaired with magic. "He's everything I could ever want in a partner… in a boyfriend."

"Does he treat you right?" the mother asks, feeling that protective side coming back, despite her barely knowing this girl very well.

"In every way possible," the young girl says. She feels a little uncomfortable with this line of question, especially into her dating life, but it did feel nice that someone was taking an interest in her life and asking her about her feeling instead of worrying about her friends and their relationships. Compared to Ben and Mal's, hers was a fairy tale.

"What did he do to win your heart?"

Evie swallows. "He respected me. He didn't take advantage of me for my looks or my brains. He gave me credit where I deserved it and stood up for me. He gave me the chance to be seen like everyone else, and not just a villain kid or a pretty face."

"I sense that you had a previous partner who did none of those things and treated you as such?" Regina questions, sensing the sad and slightly angry tone in the girl's voice.

Evie just nods and puts her phone away, not wanting to discuss it any further. Again, Regina realizes that she's probing too much and risks losing a new connection with Evie.

What is wrong with her today?! She's usually not this nosy nor does she usually care about other people this much. It's clear that she needs to stop hanging out with Snow White so much, her behaviour is becoming too much like the royal pain. She decides to change the subject.

"So, have you ever had apple-cinnamon pancakes before?"

"Never," Evie says, glad for the change in topics.

"I know I might go overboard with the apple-theme sometimes, it definitely doesn't help with the stereotype, but there are a few signature dishes that I can't help but make. Why be good at anything if you can't flaunt the talent once and a while?"

Evie smiles. "Well the apple-turnover last night was amazing, I think everyone loved it."

"I did see some hesitation at first, but that's probably because of who I am, not my actual cooking."

"I really wish people didn't see you like that," the teenager says earnestly. "You're clearly not like my mother or whatever this world's fairy tales depict you as. You are one of the nicest people I've ever met and you clearly care about everyone close to you."

"Trust me, I wasn't always like that," Regina says, adding some cinnamon to the pancake batter.

"If being in this town has taught me one thing already, it's that it doesn't matter who you were in the past, it matters who you are now and how you make it count,"

Regina smiles widely, knowing that her daughter understood everything that she'd worked so hard to accomplish for Henry's sake, and eventually for everyone else in her family. She wanted to be known as a hero now, not the villain before. She had redeemed herself in the eyes of every person, even her alternate daughter.

"Do you want to help me flip the pancakes so I can start on the bacon?" she offers.

"Is it okay is I design them into a few funny shapes?" she asks playfully.

"I will never say no to that. My son Henry used to do that all the time."

Evie happily gets up and joins Regina at the stove. She drips the batter onto the griddle, creating pancakes that looked like rings, hearts, and even ones that look like that Disney character… that mouse. The warmth of the kitchen once again brings these two closer together, despite the awkward discussions earlier and the desire not to become too close too quickly.

Eventually, Doug comes into the kitchen and wraps his arms around Evie tightly, kissing her until the point that she has to swat him away with the spatula, so she doesn't burn anything.

"Just sit down, they'll be ready soon."

"I already see something delicious that I want," he teases.

Regina shifts to the far end of the stove, wanting to give the two a few moments to themselves, but also so she doesn't become the third wheel in this situation. She turns away to avoid the PDA… maybe Evie had more Snow White in her than she first anticipated. It wasn't a bad thing, but the Evil Queen in her was still rather repulsed by it.

Despite her slight disgust, Regina knew deep down that the two loved each other very deeply and that Doug was the perfect prince of her daughter.

 _A/N: Hey guys, sorry it's been so long since I've posted, but here's a new chapter and I hope you enjoy it and leave lots of reviews and comments._


	69. Chapter 68: Negotiations

Chapter 68: Negotiations

"I just got a text from Mal," Evie says as the entire group finishes breakfast in the dining room. "She says we're going to have to meet at the clock tower on Main Street."

"Why there?" Doug asks.

"Apparently, Belle wants to do a little more research on the book Crystal found. The one that created the portal that brought you here." Regina says, beginning to clean up the dishes. "She wants to read a book about a book… I always knew she was the book worm. And meanwhile, I am tasked with gathering the ingredients to recreate the product that caused this disaster."

While Evie had yet to become used to her alternate mother's sarcasm, she did feel a little hurt by the words. Was it really a disaster if they got to know each other? The mother she always wanted and apparently the daughter she wanted. The smile faded from her face a bit, but she puts on a calm demeanour, helping gather the breakfast dishes.

"Are you going to need help?" Doug asks.

"I appreciate the offer, but the place to get these components is extremely private to me, so I am going to do it alone. But what you kids can do is try to get Ursula's guppy to tell you how she made it. If the ingredients used were not the same, that could complicate things."

"I really don't want to go near Uma," Dizzy says, immediately rushing to the sink to begin doing dishes. This surprised Evie immensely that the granddaughter of Lady Tremaine would be so eager to do chores, especially after her "Cinderella" treatment on the Isle, but seeing the anxiety on the young girl's face at the prospect of going near Uma a bully and a ruthless villain who takes after her mother in every way, she could understand why. She wanted to stall for as long as possible. However, the daughter of the Evil Queen's mind begins to wonder about this "private" place Regina mentioned. Was it family-related? Would she be able to access it since she was technically her daughter? The curiosity was getting to her and the desire to learn more about her mother suddenly rises up inside of her. She's unsure of all these feelings inside of herself… they were all relatively new… ones that made her want to feel loved and to have someone to look up to. A person she could run to if she had problems and could impart wisdom. While Mal was always her number one confidante, the two of them were the same age, Regina had much more experience when it comes to feelings, emotions, and especially true love. Mal was only starting to figure out this concept with Ben herself… if they ever got back together.

"Evie and I could do it," Jay says, pulling Evie from her thoughts. "And we'll try to find Carlos on the way."

"We… we can?"

"Yeah, no offence to you Doug and Robbie, but we've grown up with Uma, we know how to handle her more than anyone."

"That's perfectly fine," Doug says, secretly relieved that he would not have to confront such a vicious VK.

"I'm okay with that," Robbie agrees. "I guess we can help Dizzy with the dishes."

"You kids don't have to worry about that," Regina says, going over to shut the water in the sink off as Dizzy had already started to fill it.

"It's the least we can do for your kind hospitality," Robbie says in a very formal voice.

Regina swallows a lump in her, sensing a little bit of her Robin shining through. She does her best to fight back her tears, wondering what the outlaw would think if he'd been able to meet his "polite" alternate son. The blue eyes are there and the crooked smile, but he did have more red hair, likely coming from his real father. Even after such a long time, just the mere thought of her soulmate still manages to bring the tears. Snow said that this was normal, but obviously the Evil Queen was not going to take advice from the lovey-dovey princess who's technically never lost her true love for a very long time and ignoring the trauma that she and her mother had forced upon the seemingly dainty princess. She doesn't want to start crying in front of the teenagers.

"E-Excuse me," she says, before going upstairs to deal with her emotions alone.

"Is she okay?" Evie asks, having immediately noticed the shift in the Evil Queen's demeanour and sensed the sadness.

Jay puts his hand her shoulder and gives it a squeeze.

"She'll be okay, it looks like she needs some space…"

The kitchen falls quiet for a moment before the son of Jafar turns to his best friend.

"Want to shower and then head out?"

"S-Sure," Evie nods, still staring upwards to where her mother had vanished in distress.

…

When the duo are set to go, now dressed in fresh clothes provided by Regina and "hand-me-downs" from her son Henry, they prepare to head out into town.

"Feels weird doesn't it?" Evie asks. While the clothes were comfortable, they certainly were not her style.

"Good, it's not just me," he jokes.

"I'll see you at the clock tower," Regina says, having recovered and put on a better face.

"But where should we go to find Uma?"

"Well, based on what Rumple did, my guess is that she's with her mother," the former villain calculates in her head. "If you want to find her, go to Maleficent's house. The two of them are such good friends… it might also be a good place to pick up Mal if she's there." She gets out a sheet of paper and writes down the address. "Just take a left on the next street over and keep going. Her place is pretty far out there."

"By design?" Jay inquires.

"Possibly, she and I don't exactly have the best history. So, I'll see you guys soon."

The Evil Queen then gets in her car to drive in the opposite direction. She opted not to use her magic to not spook the children, besides if she needed to carry a bunch of stuff, her car was a good means of transport.

Grabbing her heart purse, both VKs begin heading down the street according to the directions given. However, Evie's mind is completely somewhere else. The itching to know what was happening in this secret place, whether she could really gain access to it, and to generally create a deeper connection with her mother began eating her insides. The further she walked away from where Regina had gone, the more desperate she became. She couldn't explain these feelings, but she just had this desire to know more. Her mind begins to formulate a plan to scratch these itches and feed this desire.

After they'd turn the corner, she put her plan into action.

She pretended to stop and search through her purse.

"Oh no…"

"What's wrong?"

"I left my phone back at the house. Do you mind if I go back and get it?"

"Uh, sure do you want me to wait?"

"N-No, it's okay, you go on ahead, I'll catch up."

"But how will you know where you're going?"

After a quick pause.

"Mal will text me the address," she says in relief for her quick thinking.

"Okay, I'll go see if we can find Uma and evidently Ursula," he says shrugging.

A great wave of relief washes over Evie as she slowly goes back the way they had come but decides to go in the direction that Regina had gone. If she couldn't find the car, she'd ask any of the locals if they'd seen her. Hopefully, Jay doesn't suspect anything as she heads back to discover more about her mother.

…

Jay continues down the road, hands casually shoved into his pockets, his long hair picked up every so often by the cool Maine air. While the town was too quiet for his taste, he did enjoy the cheerful atmosphere. He actually enjoyed his moment of peace considering the past two days.

He decides to text Carlos and see if he can find him, wondering why he'd never come back. He figured his friend had lied to him and had snuck out when he'd come downstairs to find the TV off and Carlos nowhere in the place. This did hurt the son of Jafar a lot. He loved Carlos like his brother, and it felt as if the puppy-lover was betraying their bond of trust by lying. Was he hiding something? Did Evie and Mal know about this? When he found him, he'd have to confront the son of Cruella De Vil.

While looking down at his phone, Jay doesn't notice the rustling in the bushes and he barely saw a figure leap out just as he was walking by.

The two bodies collided with one another, causing Jay to drop his phone. He becomes angry and anxious, praying that the pavement did not crack the screen, but becomes even more so when he sees who he bumped into.

Harry Hook stands there in the road, trying to recover from their collision. The two VKs look at one another, tension immediately growing with each passing second.

"What the hell Harry?" Jay barks.

"Sorry, mate didn't mean tae dae that…"

"To do what? Give me a heart attack?!" It's after a few more moments that Jay realizes that Harry actually apologized; something that has never happened before considering the pirate's past. Pigs must be flying somewhere. After collecting himself a bit more, he asks:

"What do you want Harry?"

"I a'm needin' yer help."

"Help?" Jay asks, completely flabbergasted. Had the entire world flipped? Pigs must be flying because the pirate that he'd sword fought more than a year ago and dropped his precious hook into shark-invested waters as a way to taunt him, wanted his help. Not to have a rematch, not to fight… for help. "Why do you need my help?"

"Yer the' mainly guy ah think would hae expertise in this area."

"What area? What are you talking about?"

Harry takes in a deep breath. "I want to impress a woman."

Jay nearly falls over in shock, but also from the absurdity of it all. Harry Hook, the son of Captain Hook, one of the most famous womanizers in history, wanted to impress a woman… not women, a woman. While the son of Jafar already had an idea of who this might be, he decided to hear this, if not for the sheer humour of it all.

"Really?"

"Aye."

"And why is that?"

Harry's blue eyes seem to shine for a moment, and he tries to gather his thoughts.

"Ah don't really know why, but I just can't get this girl out of my head. She's like no other woman I've ever met… (which is saying something since he grew up on the Isle). She takes flack from nobody; is very strong, smart, and… I can't seem to find the word for it…"

Jay is genuinely surprised by the actual emotion in Harry's voice. His eyes are soft, compared to the usual imbalance and hints of insanity in there. He's not threatening the son of Jafar, nor is he mocking him. It seems absolutely bizarre… was he in some kind of Twilight Zone?

"Loving?" he suggests.

"YES!" Harry says. "Exactly! But the lass is guarded and says she won't even consider me courting her until I make meself… dateable. Trouble is… I don't know what that means."

"Why should I help you?" Jay says skeptically.

Harry sighs, having already assumed that none of the Auradon VKs would actually want to help him, considering their history. He decides to answer honestly.

"Don't really hae an answer te that. I'd understand if ye don't want to help, ye got no reason to. But I assure ye, that it isn't a trick."

The VK bites his lip again, not trusting a single word the pirate said.

"And why me of all people? I'm not saying I believe you at all, I really don't but if what you're saying is true, why not talk to Mal or Evie or Carlos, or anybody else in a committed relationship. Mal and Ben are true love after all."

"I've heard te stories. Seen it on the telly too, ye got yer way wit the lasses. Besides… after what Ben told me after we nicked him, it don't seem like there's a lot of hope there wit Mal right now."

Jay nods, not entirely sure what happened between Ben and Mal. He'd hoped that they had at least talked, but his best friend had been hurt very badly by what happened back at Auradon, and he'd actually wanted to kill the king for making her feel that way. That is until Uma kind of did it for him. He did feel sort of caught in the middle, especially considering Ben was one of his friends, and the tension that was felt after their night in the hospital could have been cut with a knife.

"Plus, Mal and I, we got our history…"

"So why not Evie or Carlos?"

"Well, neither liked that I threatened their partners 'nd pupper would definitely be hatin' me after I hit on his girl before the battle."

Jay sort of nods, understanding his logic.

"Plus, no kid from Auradon let me within ten feet of them,"

There's a pause while Jay muses this over in his head. Alarm bells were still going off in his head and his stomach had turned a few times since the two had encountered each other. Of course, he was extremely skeptical, wondering if the pirate was just putting on an act like it was some kind of sick twisted prank to humiliate him or something. Or maybe it was a way to suck up and gain full access to Auradon? Had Uma put him up to this? He was still wondering why Harry would still come to him. Sure, Jay had a way with the ladies, but he was constantly dating, he hadn't had a completely secure relationship in a while.

At the same time, there was something different in Harry's demeanour, he seemed less aggressive and almost genuine in his words. His voice is softer and all around, he's calmer than before. It was clear that something had shifted within him; it seemed completely bizarre and other-worldly.

He weighs the pros and cons of trusting this pirate VK… it wasn't like Jay had anything better to do in his spare time, the town was pretty much a bust in that department, but this could be interesting, and the second he feels something is off, he can back out. Plus, if he could get Harry to come along and get Uma to talk about the portal potion, that would be a bonus.

"O-kay… if I help you… and that's a big **_IF_** , you have to help me get Uma to talk about how she made her portal juice."

Harry raises his eyebrow, actually expecting more demands from the son of Jafar. Perhaps Auradon really had changed him.

"Awright," he says. "I can do that."

"Good, and just so we're clear, this does not make us friends. I'm just going to give you some advice, that's it and if you use this to hurt this girl or try to get to Auradon, I will personally hurt you."

Both were surprised by the sheer aggression in his voice, but Jay had morals and he would not do anything if it ended up hurting another person.

Harry swallows nervously. "U-Understood."

"Okay…we're actually heading to find Ursula right now, so why don't you tell me what this girl said would make you 'dateable'"

"Well, she doesn't like when you enter her lodgings…"


	70. Chapter 69: Family Ties

Chapter 69: Family Ties

Evie continues in the direction that her alternate mother went. She knows that she should be going with Jay to meet up with Mal and then find Uma, but the curiosity seems to get the better of her, powerful enough to overwhelm her common sense.

Despite how small Storybrooke is as a town, it's still hard to navigate especially if one is not a local. She tries to keep an eye out for Regina's car. She checks every driveway that she passes to see if the queen went to visit somebody but to no avail. She crosses Main Street as discretely as she can and continues forward towards what she assumes is the outskirts of town. The daughter of the Evil Queen wants to stop and ask for directions, but something is speaking to her in the back of her mind. Maybe it's a soft whisper or even a quiet song, but it's as if she can sense where her alternate mother was going to go. She continues to listen to this strange voice until she comes to a clearing that is surrounded by many tall trees.

Evie swallows when she realizes that this is a cemetery. She sees many gravestones within the area. Regina's car is parked beside the apparent entrance to the clearing. The VK slips up towards the woman's car and peers around it. She looks for the dark hair of Regina Mills.

Eventually, she sees a hunched-over figure in front of a gravestone, very close to a small stone building on the edge of the cemetery. Evie would have almost missed the figure completely had it not been for the red scarf wrapped around the woman's neck.

Curiosity overrides her common sense again and the blue-haired girl enters the open space. Her desire to know more makes her forget about why people come to graveyards. It doesn't dawn on the young teenager that Regina was likely paying respects to one of her loved ones.

Evie leans down behind a tree on the edge of the clearing and waits patiently until Regina stands up again. The dark figure then turns and heads to the small stone building. The woman waves her hand and seems to disarm some sort of magic surrounding the structure, which spooks the blue-haired teen as she wasn't used to the open displays of magic. Once the former Evil Queen's figure disappears inside, Evie leaves her hiding spot and approaches the gravestone that her mother was kneeling in front of.

Her heart drops into guilt when she reads the name on the stone.

ROBIN HOOD

Regina was visiting her true love. There was a fresh bouquet of flowers laid next to the inscription:

 ** _Brave Hero, Loving Husband, Devoted Father, True Love_**

Also placed on his gravestone were two arrows, likely from his quiver, pointing in opposite directions.

Evie kneels down in the grass, feeling overwhelmed with emotion and the guilt of letting her desire to know more about her mother invade a very sad and personal visitation. She tries to fight back some tears

"I'm sorry I never got to meet you," she says quietly. "From what Regina has told me, you were the most amazing person in the world, and I know you saved her from being a villain forever. I wish my own mother could have found someone like you, then maybe things would have been different between the two of us. I never got to know my father, but I kind of wished that it could have been you. You do have a son from Auradon named Robbie and he's as brave as you probably were. He's also an amazing archer like I'm sure you were. I'm sorry if I invaded your time with Regina. I didn't bring any flowers, but…"

Evie reaches onto one of her gloved hands and removes one of the many rings she usually wears. She places a single gold band with a heart gem and a crown on top of it next to the arrows.

"I figure you would like this a bit better. I bet it matches your colour palette."

She smirks at her own joke before becoming serious again.

"It's from the daughter you never had. We'll try to get Robbie out here at least once so you can meet him… and thank you for taking care of my mom."

She smiles and wipes away a few of her tears before standing up again. She readjusts her purse and then casts her dark eyes on the stone building in front of her.

She takes a few slow cautious steps towards it, hesitant to near it because of the magic. Once again, that voice that seemed to be calling or beckoning to her reappears as she stares up at the symbol above the door. The image is of two interlocking deer antlers. She slowly places her hand out to touch the field surrounding the building.

She winces expecting to be hit by the magic, but the magical field of white appears in front of her and ripples with her touch. Evie places her fingertip against the solid field, and it seems as though her finger glows blue. Shocked, she takes her hand off and gazes at it… nothing, but she felt something. It was strong, warm, and powerful.

She then places her entire hand against the barrier, her entire hand, including her palm glows a bright blue. It feels very warm and almost tickles, like the flickering of a candle. She presses a little further and suddenly, in a gust of wind, the wall of magic vanishes. Evie presses her hand forward, but there's nothing there any longer. She stares at her hand, completely confused, amazed, and a little freaked out. She sucks in a deep breath and goes towards the large orange coloured doors between the tall two stone pillars.

She opens the door and enters into a very dark and shadowed room... almost like the foyer of the building. Two stone archways are in front of her and to her shock, there's a large wooden coffin on the other end of the room.

Immediately, Evie retreats, ready to go back out, assumed that her alternate mother was visiting another deceased loved one, but… she's nowhere to be seen. As she continues to peer through the doorway, she doesn't see Regina anywhere. The place is not exactly very big, so there is no place for her to hide and usually, places in the cemetery didn't have alternate exits.

Despite her better judgement, the same voice returns into her head, only it's stronger than before, the VK enters the place.

She cautiously and quietly makes her way to the other end of the room where she notices on the left side of the coffin is a wall of holes containing candles. She also sees two roses placed on top of the casket. She leans down to read the inscription:

 _Cora Mills, Beloved Mother_

Was this the resting place of her alternate grandmother? Evie wondered to herself.

She then notices something odd. There are scratch marks on the floor as if something had been dragged across it. That would be common if they were moving the coffin in here, but these marks were deep as if this movement had been done many times.

The voice in her head seems to become even stronger as she places her hand against the stone platform in which the casket lay. Adding some pressure, Evie is shocked to find the entire podium shifted ever so slightly. She pushes a bit harder and notices a gap underneath. Finally, using all her strength, she pushes until the coffin moves completely to reveal a staircase leading downwards.

This might be where Regina is, but the VK hesitates. Would Regina be mad that her alternate daughter invaded her inner sanctum? Disturbed the remains of her mother? Followed her when she said she would do some task by herself?

Evie turns to leave when she hears the voice. It's the strongest it's ever been. Something down there was calling to her. Her stomach turns as she gazes down into the shadowed darkness of the stairs.

Inhaling sharply, the daughter of the Evil Queen descends the stairs. She walks into temporary darkness before coming into a lower sanctum illuminated by many candles and a few torches. Maybe Regina should invest in electric lighting. Evie can hear her heart pounding very loudly as she slowly takes a few steps forward, gazing around. The beating of her heart pounded like a bass drum… Then more hearts join in… It's then the young teen realizes that it wasn't her heart she was hearing, but other people's. Heading straight forward towards the sound, Evie comes upon what might be a room but has a yellow curtain in front of it. The sounds of those beating hearts are coming from behind the curtains. With a shaky hand, Evie peers behind the curtains to find gold boxes arranged in many rows and columns. Several dots on the boxes are glowing yellow and flash in the rhythm that a heart would.

Horrified, Evie shuts the curtain and moves on. She turns back towards the stairs to get out of this crazy place, but something shiny catches her eye. To her left, she finds a room where there are items, books, and chests are strewn about, and a very fancy mirror hanging on the wall. She assumes that this is the shiny thing that caught her eye.

Approaching it carefully, she stares at her reflection for a long time. She assumes that she will not see the face in the mirror because she was pretty sure she met him the other day. It has a large metal frame that is meant to resemble the sun. She quietly adjusts her hair as she would often do and swallows. She opens her mouth:

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall…"

Suddenly, the mirror lights up as if in response to the girl's voice. Evie steps back in fear, wondering how it came alive, but immediately assumes that those were the magic words to activate it. The glass turns blue and it begins to fog over, no longer revealing a reflection.

"Who…who is my true love, one and all?"

The fog continues to swirl and glow. It's then that the same voice calls to her. It's right in front of her, clear as can be. The voice compels the teenager to get closer.

Despite her reservations, Evie gets nearer until the enchanted decoration is inches from her face. The musical voice is singing to her, but she cannot understand what it's saying.

"What do you want?" she whispers.

She reaches forward and touches the glass. However, instead of it being solid, it ripples again, like the magical field outside. Evie's hand glows blue and she pulls her hand back… only for the reflective surface of the mirror to go with her.

In a panic, the girl steps back further, but the shiny, silvery liquid mirror follows her hand. It glows blue like the teen's hand and continues to move out of the frame until it is a shimmering sheet of liquid stuck to her hand.

Evie lets out a noise of fear and attempts to shake it off.

It's then something purple surrounds her hand and releases the liquid mirror. The substance snaps back into the frame and stops glowing completely.

Evie turns to her right and sees Regina standing there, her hand outstretched as it was likely her magic that detached the VK from the mirror. The blue-haired girl's eyes immediately fill with tears and she opens her mouth to speak, but a lump in her throat prevents the words from coming out.

However, Regina doesn't look mad… She's just as shocked as her alternate daughter.

"I'm… I'm so sorry," Evie utters through her tears.

"How did you do that?" the former Evil Queen asks.

"W-What?"

"How did you do that?"

"I-I don't know, I just touched it."

"I've never seen my mirror do that before!"

"W-What…?"

"And not many people can get past the barrier around my mausoleum…"

Her head tilts slightly as she examines the frightened girl.

"When did you realize that you had magic?"

 _A/N: Sorry for the long hiatus, but here's a new chapter. Seems that Evie has some unrealized magical potential. I took the mirror's magical reaction from the Snow White and the Huntsman movie, where the mirror man comes out of the Queen's mirror-like a liquid and looks like a sheet ghost. Say what you want about the movie, I think that effect is cool._


	71. Chapter 70: Something Unexpected

Chapter 70: Something Unexpected

"Ye sure this is the right house?" Harry asks.

"Only one at the end of the block," Jay says, checking his phone to make sure. For some strange reason, Harry had decided to stay with Jay, even though they were going to visit Mal. Both teens knew that the daughter of Maleficent would not be happy to see the pirate, but if they were going even attempt to talk to Uma, her first mate is a good place to start. "You might want to let me go get Mal, considering the history between you two."

"Agreed," Harry nods, he stops at the foot of the driveway and waits patiently.

Jay goes up and knocks on the door of the blue house. He waits patiently as he hears footsteps approaching.

However, instead of his best friend answering, it's Maleficent herself. She wears a dark blue housecoat and holds a cup of coffee in her hands with the label Mistress of All Evil on it, a gag gift from her daughter last Christmas. She does not look pleased with all to having to answer the door looking like this, especially in front of a teenager, but Lily had left for the morning and Mal was still getting ready.

"May I help you?" she asks in a tone of annoyance.

Jay swallows. He has no idea what this Maleficent is like. She was obviously calmer and saner than Mal's mother, but she was still a powerful fairy/sorceress so he could not take any chances.

"I'm... sorry to bother you, I'm just looking for Mal,"

"Yes, she did tell me that some of her friends would be coming, granted I didn't know it would be so soon."

"I... I really am sorry for bothering you so early, if you could just let Mal know that I'm here, I'll wait in the driveway."

Maleficent's mouths form a thin line and bend up into a small appreciative smile and nod.  
"Most appreciated, I will tell her that you're here."

"Thank you," Jay says politely before turning back towards Harry.

He meets the pirate at the end of the driveway, and they stand in awkward silence.

"So..." Jay says. "What's it like over at Emma and Killian's place?"

Harry glances at the son of Jafar and then looks at his boots.

"Awright, so many bloody rules though.

"Yeah, I'm guessing that's something you're not used to."

"Not at all. Ye can't put your boots on the table, ye can't touch any of the son's ting's, ye can't just leave whenever you want"

"Welcome to the world of responsibility," Jay shrugs. "Having parents will do that to you and I'm guessing they don't have a lot of patience for after what happened with Evie yesterday."

"Is this what it's like at Auradon?"

"Pretty much, only you're more likely to live in dorms with no parents, but you still have to follow the rules."

"Damn dem rules," the pirate hisses. "At least on the Isle you could do whatever you wanted."

"On the Isle, you barely got three meals a day and usually had to fight to do anything."

"It was fun though."

Jay silently agrees with the pirate, but just nods a quick affirmative agreement with him.

"Although, if you do want to start dating Crystal, you might have to get used to the rules."

"Bloody hell," he hisses again.

"Sorry dude, but if you are serious about dating her, you have to learn some manners. Some chicks dig the rebels and the bad boys, but most want guys who respect them. And I'm guessing Crystal falls into the latter group."

"Aye," Harry mutters, taking off his hat and running his hand through his hair.

Just then the door of the house slams and Mal starts walking towards the two boys, dressed in a black t-shirt and jeans. It was almost alien to both VKs to see her in this world's clothing. Leather and purple had always been Mal's thing and to see her like this, it was weird. Jay felt the same way, wearing jeans and a t-shirt with the logo RWBY on it, something that Regina's son Henry liked. The only one who kept his Auradon/ Isle attire what Harry.

Mal's once grape hair had started to fade back to a darker shade as well and it was pulled into a ponytail, another weird thing.

However, when the daughter of Maleficent sees Harry standing with Jay, she stops suddenly, and her eyes light up.

"What is he doing here?" she asks angrily.

"Chill Mal, Harry and I have developed a truce with each other..."

"I don't believe you," she snaps.

"It's true Luv," the pirate smirks, leaning over to examine his ex-girlfriend's appearance. Still beautiful as ever, even in the plain clothing. The son of Jafar notices and jumps on it.

"Another thing Harry, girls don't like is when you leer at someone other than them."

Mal is floored by what her best friend just said. She pieces it together in her mind what was going on.

"Don't you dare call me Love and are you seriously giving him dating advice?" she gasps, her mouth hanging open in shock. Of all the things that he and Uma put them through, they've suddenly called a truce so Jay can give him advice on how to pick-up girls.

"Chill Mal it's okay, he wants to try and get a date with Crystal."

"Crystal?" she looks at Harry in disgust. "You honestly think you can get a date with Crystal. I hope to God she has much higher standards than that."

"Unlike yours?" Harry sneered obnoxiously. "What standards did ye have to wit me?"

Mal's eyes glow green and she impulsively reaches her hand out and to their surprise, a wave of green-tinted magic flies from her fingers and blasts Harry backwards onto the pavement. The pirate winces in pain, hat falling from his head and his elbows and hands become badly scraped as they took most of the impact. He looks up in shock as Mal's eyes are as green as road flare and while she does look extremely angry, she is also surprised that her magic was working. Ever since she came here, it hasn't worked, no matter how many spells she tried? Her mind begins to race as she wonders why it has activated now. Sure, she and Ben felt that wave of rainbow magic yesterday, but that was true love's kiss and something completely different.

"Whoa Mal, ease up there," Jay says, standing in front of his friend to prevent her from taking another shot at Harry.

Mal looks at her hands in shock and pants heavily, confused.

"How... how? My magic wasn't working before."

"Did something happen yesterday to trigger it?" Jay inquires.

The teenaged girl bites her lip, wondering if her making up with Ben and their kiss... had that something to do with it? It seemed unlikely, but in this crazy place, anything was possible.

"I don't know... maybe."

"Well try not to tear him apart again because he's one of the only people who can get Uma to reveal her portal secrets."

"Aye," Harry says, getting and brushing any blood onto his pants.

The daughter of Maleficent continues to glare at Harry but slowly brings her anger down to a manageable temperament again. She still wants to hurt the pirate but knowing that he was one of the keys to getting home, just bites her lip. However, she still has to get the last word in.

"At least Ben was ten times the boyfriend you were. He made my standards so much higher."

Harry snorts but doesn't say anything further, lest he is at the receiving end of another of Mal's unexpected magic attacks.

"Let's go to the clock tower and then have Rumpelstiltskin tell us where Ursula and Uma are staying."

After a long pause, the girl relents. "Fine," she hisses.

All three VKs begin walking down the street back towards the centre of Storybrooke, unaware that the mistress of all evil had witnessed what had occurred. Maleficent looks on in concern about what she had seen. She already knew that her "alternate" daughter had inherited the dragon gene, but this girl was full of magical potential. Something she had little no control over. She leaves the front window and then goes for her cell phone, bringing up Regina in her contacts and typing a message.

...

"Where is Evie? I thought she was going to be with you?" Mal asks. She and Jay walk side-by-side with Harry bringing up the rear, obviously trying to keep his distance from his ex-girlfriend.

"She left her phone at home and decided to meet us here. She didn't text you?"

"No, I haven't heard from her since yesterday. She actually forgot her phone." For as long as Mal and Jay had known her, Evie hardly went anywhere without some form of communication, especially her phone. She needed it in case a sudden fashion order came in or a customer needed an adjustment to their outfit. She was never far from her phone; it was completely out of character for her best friend to do that. But, maybe that craziness of the last few days had taken a toll on her memory and she just misplaced it.

"Weird," Jay says, he shakes his head in confusion. "Maybe you should send her a message to tell her we're meeting at the clock tower."

"Okay,"

As the villain kids continue to walk down the streets, Jay glances back to make sure that Harry is still following them. If their truce was still on, then he hoped the son of Captain Hook would be true to his word, provided Mal's magic attack didn't break it already.

"So, how's life at your Mom's place?"

"My 'other' mom," Mal corrects.

"Right."

"It's okay, she seems to be okay with me, it's Lily that's really a problem."

"A problem how?"

"She just hates me. Most of the time, I don't even exist, but when she does talk to me, all she does is be snarky, berate me, and call me names."

"Why? What did you ever do to her?"

"That's what I want to know. I'm thinking maybe she's upset that I'm living in the house, but it won't be for too long. Honestly, I'd prefer is she would just ignore me altogether."

"Well hopefully we won't be here for too much longer," Jay says.

Mal feels her stomach flip slightly. Despite the circumstances that brought them here, she did like that she was exploring the different places that she'd read about in the book. This world was fascinating to begin with, so different from Auradon and the Isle, a good change of pace in her opinion. She knows not everyone felt the same way, especially Ben, but she kind of wanted to stay just a little longer. The fact that she had a decent mother here was a bonus.

The trio eventually makes it downtown and head towards the clock tower.

...

Crystal waits patiently as her father comes up to the front doors of the library with Belle, Gideon, Patrick, Paige, and Ben. She smiles at her "alternate" brother and he returns her smile. She can immediately tell that he and Mal had made up. The way he carried himself spoke volumes to her. She nods at him and he does something completely unexpected, once he reaches her, he hugs her.

"So I'm guessing all is well in paradise?" she asks, returning the embrace.

"At the moment," he answers. "It's not perfect yet, but we're on the right track."

"Glad to hear it," she says, patting his back before breaking apart.

"I just want to thank you for the speech you gave me. It inspired me to make things right and it brightened my spirits."

"Most of my ex-boyfriend stories will do that for you," she smirks.

Crystal then begins leafing through the book she'd recovered from her father's shop, trying to find the portal recipe. Belle uses her keys to open the library, while Rumple held his son.

"Are the others meeting us here?" the Dark One asks.

"I think so," Crystal answers. "I sent a mass text to everyone earlier and Regina is going to be bringing the ingredients."

"We can't start mixing yet," Belle says, once the doors are unlocked. Ben, Paige, and Patrick follow the family inside. They are immediately taken aback by the number of books inside. While there was a library at Auradon, they could somehow sense that this one was different somehow. It wasn't the patterned tiled floor or the shelves and shelves of various volumes and stories, or the desk in the centre of the place, but perhaps it was the antique elevator across from the check-out counter. The heavy brass doors and the wheel crank on the side made the place look older than they had first anticipated.

Its rustic feel made it seem like it was a library had more stories to tell than any of the books in the place could tell them. Their eyes look upwards and take in everything, wondering how they would be able to get into the clocktower situated above the building.

"We need to ensure that Uma used the same ingredients as we did so there is no risk to anyone who travels through them."

"If our portals connected like that, I'm pretty sure it's safe to assume so," Crystal says.

"I don't want to bank anything on 'pretty sure.'" Belle insists. She disappears somewhere into one of the sections to find Lord knows what.

Crystal rolls her eyes and decides to trade her father, the book for her baby brother.

"So how are you guys adjusting?" she asked Paige and Patrick, deciding to allow them to feel more welcome.

The twins look at one another.

"Okay, I guess," Patrick shrugs.

"We did hear Gideon last night though," Paige adds.

"I'll give you guys some earplugs, does wonders for the sleep schedule," Crystal says earnestly.

"It's a nice home though," Patrick adds as earnestly as he can. It's clear to the girl from Storybrooke that these kids are homesick and don't want to be here, which she can understand completely.

"Yeah, it is. Feel free to look around guys, it might take Belle a little while to find the books. Just don't go in the elevator. You need someone to crank it. Going up you end up in the clocktower, going down you end up in an underground cavern."

"A cavern?" Ben asks. "Why is that there?"

"It's where Regina used to keep Maleficent," the daughter of the Dark One says casually as if it's no big deal. "But don't worry, she's not there now."

The doors open and in walks Mal, Jay, and Harry. The kids from Auradon immediately flinch in fear, but Harry just shoves his hands in his pocket. Ben smiles brightly at Mal and she gives him a small grin in return. Her cheeks flush pink a little bit. It was strange for the King of Auradon to see her in such casual clothing, and not in purple. The clothes in this realm were strange, to say the least as he, Patrick, and Paige all wore similar attire. While it was by no means uncomfortable, it was just a bit unusual.

Crystal tries to avoid Harry's hypnotic blue eyes, but he does give her a crooked smile and she rolls her eyes playfully. She then notices the dried blood and scrapes on his arms.

"What happened to you?" she asked.

"Had a little bit o an encounter wit Mal," he answers.

"She beat you up?"

"No, she threw me wit magic."

"Magic?" Ben says in shock. Crystal matches his stunned look. "I thought your magic didn't work here?"

"I thought so too," she says to her boyfriend. "But apparently we were wrong."

"Strong too," Harry adds, still rubbing his sore hands on his pants.

Crystal, despite her heart fluttering, decides to take pity on the pirate. Her hand glows a soft purple colour and the wounds on Harry's hands and arms close up and heal completely. While he is shocked at first, the pirate sighs in some relief.

"Many thanks, Love," he smirks.

She rolls her eyes again but returns a genuine smile. She then turns to Mal.

"So, Mal when did your magic start acting up?"

 _A/N: Please follow and review_


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